At Your Three
by Meermiss
Summary: POST ME3: Spoilers ahoy. The sequel to "On Your Six". After Jane Shepard's recovery from her injuries in the Battle for Earth, Jane Shepard has been promoted to Captain and has been given back the Normandy. She is sent on an easy mission; to test the connection between two reconstructed relay points. But a trip to the Exodus Cluster detours rapidly. Written from Garrus' perspective
1. The Other Love

**STORY NOTES**

I do not own any of the Mass Effect content.

This story is a continuation of On Your Six, a post ME3 fanfic that featured Garrus Vakarian and his efforts to direct the Normandy crew in saving Commander Shepard.

This story is also in a sense an AU. In this play through of Mass Effect, I had no access to the Leviathan DLC, and so they were never a feature. This fiction features the consequences of ignoring the Leviathan race.

This play through of Mass Effect had Shepard as a Spacer/War Hero. Liara was romanced in ME1. 2 and 3 were devoted to Garrus. This version of Shepard is almost pure Paragon to the point of stupidity, which has mostly been explained by an incredible amount of self-control.

* * *

It had been nearly eight months since the Reapers had been defeated, and only now was the Normandy and its captain cleared for takeoff. It had taken Jane Shepard quite a bit of physiotherapy to make sure she was up to military standard, and she had worked her ass off for it. It was to be expected from her. She was stubborn, and rarely did she crack in public. However, in public was the key word. In private, Jane had gritted her teeth, gotten frustrated, and had gotten sullen and irritable. It was a very frustrating time for Jane Shepard.

But today was to be the first voyage that the Normandy SR-2 had taken since Shepard's rescue mission. It hadn't become a focal point for pomp and ceremony. Jane hadn't kept it quiet on purpose, but she had never really liked attention either. In fact, there were only two Admirals at this occasion, and it was for a private meeting with Jane.

Garrus wasn't right behind Shepard, but he was definitely close enough to be able to hear the conversation going on between Jane Shepard and the two Admirals. Jane was in her off-duty uniform, which was a black uniform with the Normandy's code emblazoned on her chest. On her shoulder lapels, the bands of an Alliance Captain flashed gold. She wore a heavy jacket, and underneath the jacket at her side, he could see the outline of a magnetic pistol holster. Her fiery red hair was tied up in a ponytail again, a style that she seemed to grow fond of.

In front of Jane were the two admirals. One was an elderly man, and one of the main heroes of the Reaper Wars. Admiral Hackett had a surprisingly straight posture for an elderly soldier, however he had the aura of a man who was running on his last legs. Meanwhile, the vision beside him was a slightly older copy of Jane. She had the same fiery hair, although it was streaked with pure white streaks, and crow's feet gave her the look of age. She also wore the uniform of an admiral, although she was a lower rank than the elderly admiral beside her. She was examining Jane with different eyes though, emerald hued and far harder than that of her daughter. Rear Admiral Hannah Shepard, the mother to Jane Shepard.

"Your first mission is a very simple one, Captain." The woman said calmly. She seemed to have a stony mask, one that Garrus recognized from her daughter's face. "Should I expect to hear about another plot to take over the galaxy if you complete it?"

The mission was indeed simple. The Alliance had managed to repair two mass relays that could connect to each other; one was here at Earth, and the other was near Eden Prime. Each race of Council Space had agreed to devote resources to repairing the mass relays within their systems. The Alliance had been the last to get two mass relays operational, but they finally had it, and Captain Shepard's team were to be sent in to test the relay. This was for a couple of reasons. The first was that this was a simple mission for Captain Shepard to come back to service to. It was something that wasn't exciting, so that her and her crew didn't have to do anything too strenuous. The second reason was that if something WERE to go wrong, if anyone could get the crew through it alive, it would be Captain Shepard.

Garrus was a little bit surprised at the comment, but all he saw was a smile on Jane's face. That caused him to relax. If she was alright with it, he could just ask her later about it. "I hope not, Admiral. I don't go looking for them."

Hannah Shepard let a smile cross her face, and that was where Garrus saw the similarities between the two of them. They both had the same smile. It was soft and gentle, a reflection of the woman underneath the command. He heard her reply with a "Good." and saw her nod. "Are you ready?"

"I've been waiting for it for the last seven months." Jane replied as she rotated her shoulder to relieve the tense muscles within them. "I'm ready."

"Your crew?"

"Of course!" Joker's voice came through the speakers. Clearly Joker had already shuffled off to the cockpit, and Garrus could picture his fingers twitching nearby the flight controls for the minute that the admirals were clear. Garrus chuckled underneath his breath. The two admirals looked up at the ceiling for a second, and then Admiral Shepard pointed upwards.

"Is he always like that?"

"Yes." Garrus and Jane replied in unison. He hadn't even realized he spoke until Jane tilted her head towards him and smirked. Garrus quickly raised his hands in the air. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Vakarian, you've proven yourself almost as much as the Captain." Admiral Shepard said matter-of-factly. She motioned him forward and Garrus took a few steps to stand beside Jane. He kept his arms behind his back out of respect, subconsciously treating her as if she were a turian officer. Admiral Shepard held out her hand towards him, which Garrus took carefully.

"I don't think I got the chance to thank you properly." Hannah Shepard stated calmly, staring directly into Garrus' eyes. Hannah was a decently tall woman, unlike Jane who was only 5'10". Granted, the first time that Garrus had called Jane short, she had protested that she was tall for her kind, which only made Garrus picture a bunch of human children in their military. Garrus nodded.

"No thanks needed, Admiral. I was doing my job."

"As her crew mate or as her significant other?" Hannah asked pointedly. Garrus felt a lump in his throat. He saw Jane blush out of the corner of his eye. Garrus coughed once and stared up at the ceiling.

"Uhm... both?"

He could feel Jane's silent laughter beside him and saw Hannah smirk out of the corner of his eye. Hannah turned her head to Jane and seemed to give her a knowing smile. That was the first time that Garrus thought the words, [i]'Damn Shepard women...'[/i], and it probably wouldn't be the last. He let go of the Admiral's hand and placed his hands behind his back again, feeling uncomfortable as he did so.

Hackett on the other hand just seemed to be highly amused. Garrus could kind of imagine what it must be like for him... to be at the end of his life, watching the young folk joke and play around. Hackett soon rescued Garrus from the silently giggling women and looked at Jane. "Captain, come back alive this time."

Jane looked genuinely ashamed. "I'm sorry that has to be something to be said, Admiral."

Admiral Shepard seemed to have gathered her composure and was looking directly at Jane with scrutiny. "Well... suffice it to say that if they tell me you're killed in action again, I'll most likely call bullshit."

"I've been doing that for years." Garrus mused. That earned him a dirty look from the young woman beside him.

"Admiral... Mom. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." Hannah replied gently.

* * *

Garrus had taken his cot in the main battery again. When asked about staying in the captain's cabin, he had firmly declined. His period as the captain was over, and he gladly gave back command of the ship to Jane. Jane had more experience and she was a better leader than Garrus could ever hope to be. She said on a regular basis that Garrus could be a leader if he wanted to, but he honestly didn't feel comfortable with it when Jane was around. He defaulted to being her right-hand man, always backing her decisions, and always watching her back. Besides, he liked the cot in the main battery. There was a certain charm to sleeping in the room. The way that the machines around him whirred and buzzed was comforting to sleep to. Tali once told him that the reason that she slept in Engineering was because of the sound and the comfort it gave, and after eight months of shore leave, Garrus was finally beginning to understand what that meant. Garrus also knew that Jane regularly had meetings with the crew in her office, and he really didn't feel like interrupting that.

He was at the moment not tending to the guns. Many jokes had been made amongst the crew about how much Garrus calibrated these guns, and even he occasionally made jokes about it too. He knew that he had something that border lined on an unhealthy obsession with the guns, but at least the crew knew that they were well kept. But that wasn't what he was doing at the moment. Right now, he was listening to a communication that he obtained about six months ago from someone he cared very deeply about; his little sister Solana.

_"I never actually thought that you'd come clean on what you've been doing. It's good to hear. I won't say that I didn't panic though. When you told us that you were on board the famous Normandy, everything suddenly clicked into place. You never could tell us where you were or what you were doing. Now we finally understand why. At least you weren't on pleasure cruises like you said you were. I could've nearly kicked your pale scaly ass for that._

_Mom forgives you, by the way. She and Dad had a long talk about everything. Mom's dying, Garrus. The doctors don't think that she'll last the year. The Reaper Wars just took too much out of her, having to move from med facility to med facility. But Mom also knows about your little fling with that human commander. Dad's pissed. Mom fully approves."_

'Fling?' Garrus thought scornfully. It was something he couldn't help but think every time he reviewed this message.

_"I got a position on a research vessel. Mom told me to accept it. We're headed out to the Far Rim next week. I probably won't be back to Palaven for a long time, since the mass relays are down. I think Mom's happier with that. She wouldn't want us lingering on her death bed._

_I'll keep in touch, Garrus. Try to tell me about your pleasure cruises. Why won't you return my messages?"_

The message stopped and Garrus closed his eyes, leaning against the wall. Since that message, his mother had indeed died, about a month after this communication. It had been very difficult to keep up good spirits throughout the ordeal. Jane had figured out almost immediately that something was wrong though. The day that he got the message, she had to take one look at him and know something was wrong. When he came to her bedside to visit that night, she hadn't said a word. All she did was touch his face, and then grip his hand, and they had sat in silence that night.

His sister was the focus of his attention at the moment though. Since that message, Solana had sent no others, not even one to their father. It had been six months since anyone had heard from them. But on the other hand, there was no message from the turian high command about her ship being MIA. He tried not to preoccupy his time with it. He shook his head and frowned.

"You know, you're awfully animated when you think you're alone."

The voice had come from the doorway, and Garrus looked up the narrow passageway and up the stairs. Through the gaps in two bars he could see a familiar red head. He stood up a bit straighter and tried to put on the best smirk that he could.

"Is that so?" Garrus replied back. He tilted his head as Jane Shepard walked around the corner and proceeded down the stairs. She eyed his cot and then him in the dark red glow of the main battery. Then she nodded.

"Yes. I've come to notice that."

"You often look at me without me knowing?" Garrus asked wryly.

"No... there's only been a couple of times. That was one of them." She said as she jabbed her thumb behind her at the main landing. Garrus chuckled a bit and then nodded his head towards her.

"How's the walking?"

"Oh, it's going fine. I haven't collapsed yet if that's what you're asking. I think I'm mostly back to health, or at least as close as I'm going to be." She absent-mindedly stretched her arm and rolled her neck once. She did it to relieve the tense muscles in her upper back and neck, Garrus had figured out. Human anatomy was definitely something that he needed to learn more about. He noted the movement and gave a quiet nod. If she started to do that too much, it meant that he needed to convince her to go and relax.

"Good. We'll see if that continues when you get back out into the line of fire."

Jane laughed quietly. "Don't say that too loudly, or we might actually have to resolve a physical dispute." She shook her head and crossed her arms. "Do you really think we'll get ourselves into trouble?"

Garrus stared at her blankly.

"I guess so." Jane laughed as she raised her hands in a peaceful position. She looked over him for a few moments and then smiled. "So. What was that thing you were listening to earlier?"

Garrus didn't know if she'd mention it. He figured she'd heard at least the tail end of it though. "That was the message from Solana. The one I told you about?"

Jane blinked. "From half a year ago?"

"Yeah."

"Why were you listening to that?"

Garrus frowned and looked at the guns in front of him. "Just... thinking."

He felt Jane's hand on his arm and he found his hand reaching for hers without even thinking. "Worried about something, Garrus?"

"It's been a while since she's sent any communications, even to my father. I just hope she's okay."

Jane sighed and raised a hand to his shoulder. He felt her attempt to give it a squeeze. "The universe is a much bigger place now. It could just be that she's in a dead zone, no communications can be sent in or out. It doesn't necessarily mean that she ran into trouble." She smiled reassuringly at him. "From what you've told me about her, she sounds tough. I'm sure she's fine."

That was true, Solana was tough. She was abrasive, annoying and obnoxious, but she was tenacious and daring. She was an engineer for the military, one that specialized in engine cores. However, that didn't mean that she was defenceless She was better with a shotgun then Garrus could ever hope to be. The only time that Solana didn't seem to think she was invincible was when her life, especially her family life, came crashing down around her mandibles. It was nice to see that she was trying to bounce back after their mother's illness, and soon death. Garrus himself hadn't ever been as good at bouncing back from tragedy as Solana.

When the turian got lost in his thoughts, he hadn't really noticed that Jane had reached up to touch the side of his face gently. He felt his head be guided towards her, and the haze over his eyes lifted a little. She was looking him straight in the eye with a focused gaze. His mandibles twitched as she raised one eyebrow. It was the mocking look she occasionally gave him, the 'Do it or else' look.

"Alright, alright." He rumbled gently. "I'm sure she'll be fine too." He kissed her forehead gently and then summoned up the computer for the firing mechanism. He saw Jane look around and then she eyed the cot again.

"You know, you're more than welcome to split my quarters. I don't see why you have a cot down here."

"Because that wouldn't be awkward for the crew." Garrus commented wryly as he started typing away at the keyboard.

"Garrus, I'm serious."

Garrus stopped what he was doing and looked in Jane's direction. She did indeed have a serious look on her face. He looked over her face and glanced off to the side, as if expecting someone to walk in on their conversation... and perhaps wanting it to happen, in a small part of him. Then, he looked back at Jane. "Your military doesn't have any regulations about bunking with subordinates?"

Jane frowned. "First of all, we're hardly a typical Alliance ship. Second of all, I'm supposed to be conducting my business as a Spectre, and they frankly don't have any damn rules on who a Spectre can sleep with." She folded her arms. "And third of all, no, there isn't a rule." Then, Garrus spotted the sudden realization flash over her face. "And who said you were a subordinate?"

"It was assumed." Garrus raised his hands. "Jane, I don't mind, really. I've been in charge of the Normandy. It's not one of my favourite activities."

"I could tell."

Garrus blinked twice. "Erm... you could?"

Jane grinned a wicked grin. "You're right by the way. The captain's log isn't a personal journal."

Garrus was confused for half a second, and then memories suddenly poured back to the forefront of his mind. With each passing second, he recalled more and more, and by the end of it, he coughed once and stared up at the ceiling.

"I'm sorry... I honestly... I didn't... I... It was a good way..." Garrus stammered.

That was when he was greeted by a kiss to the cheek, and the feeling of wanting to melt into a puddle flooded through him. He looked down at Jane, who was actually laughing quietly now, her eyes full of mirth and joy. She shook her head. "Thanks for not putting my name up on the memorial wall, big guy."

"S'fine." Garrus mumbled.

"And I will take you out on that date eventually. Next time we have shore leave."

Garrus coughed, now fully and completely unable to articulate anything at all. He felt Jane's fingers on the side of his face and he let his face be guided by them, until he had to stare into her eyes, and all thoughts through his head vanished, only to be replaced by numb embarrassment... and happiness.

"I'm glad you did it... not just for the obvious reason of being alive because you saved my life. You've... changed Garrus. When you first came on the ship, you were a lost and frustrated young turian, always willing to bend the rules if it meant that justice wouldn't be obstructed. I almost worried that you'd become overzealous. I'm glad we had those chats when you first left C-Sec... the chats about morality and justice. I also thought you had a stick up your ass a lot of the time."

Garrus gave a cough of a laugh, completely stunned by the conversation topic.

"But... you really grew as a man." Jane said sagely to him. "You grew to open yourself up, no matter how many times the universe took away what was precious to you. I thought we'd lose you again when we went after Lantar Sidonis... but after you began to listen to me, I knew we had you back. You're a great leader, and a gentle intellectual when you put your mind to it. I can't think of anyone better to have as my second in command... or as the love of my life. Thank you, Garrus... for everything."

Garrus finally found his voice, but when he found it, he was incredibly humbled. He bowed his head and replied quietly, "Thank you, Jane."

"You're welcome. Now!" Jane smirked, gaining back her mischievous nature. "Now that I've buttered you up, NOW are you willing to move in with me?"

Garrus stared at her. He looked incredulous for a moment. Then, he let out a quiet, rumbling laugh. "Maybe. Slowly. I can't abandon the other love of my life."

"And who's that? Who do I have to kill?" Garrus saw the look of anger on her face, livid and overprotective in nature.

Garrus flashed her a grin and jabbed at the machine beside him. "The guns, of course. They'll always need calibrating."

"... ass."

"Payback is sweet, isn't it Shepard?" Garrus earned a backhanded slap in the arm for that comment.

* * *

"Preparing to hit the mass relay Captain. ETA, six minutes." Garrus heard Joker inform Shepard.

Garrus himself was sitting in the cockpit of the Normandy. He still came up to visit and help Joker every once in a while... in fact, Garrus could be found in a lot more places than just the main battery. He was sitting in the co-pilot's seat while the aforementioned Captain stood behind Joker, leaning over his chair to look at the monitors. She frowned and nodded.

"Good job. Get us through safely. This is just a straightforward run, let's keep it that way." She straightened up and glanced at Garrus.

"I'm stealing Garrus back from you, Joker. I'm going to need him for the ground team."

"I've done this alone before. Take him." Joker said calmly as he waved the two of them away.

Garrus got up out of his seat and nodded once at Shepard. The two of them started to walk down the hallway towards the command terminal in the main foyer of the ship. Garrus glanced down at Jane. Her face was grim, her stance tense. Garrus raised an eye ridge.

"Expecting trouble?"

"Always." Jane muttered back.

"If you keep thinking that way, something will happen, guaranteed." Garrus replied back. He tried to keep the tone of his voice as soothing as possible, a small gesture that was hardly visible. He knew Jane picked it up when he saw the corner of her lip curl upwards. The rest of her face stayed stony.

"Well, you keep being optimistic. I'll keep us prepared. I need the ground team regardless of the result. Who have we got?"

"Vega got leave to come with us."

"Well, that's good. Anyone else?"

"Gabby Daniels."

Garrus saw Jane's face change as they walked. "Gabby?"

"She's been apparently working on her self-defence She also developed a battle droid. She worked on it after the Collector attack on the ship. She put in her name for the ground teams not long ago." Garrus walked with her towards her private terminal, spotting Traynor out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll consider it if we need a engineering specialist." Jane looked uncomfortable. "Anyone else?"

"No... Ashley went to her own ship, Liara and Javik are on Thessia, Tali made her way back to Rannoch to help build... Out of the old team, it's just you, Vega and I. Gabby may not be Tali, but if we need a specialist..."

"Right..." Jane huffed a little. "I guess that's acceptable."

Garrus wanted to tell her to relax, to take a deep breath and calm down, but he also didn't feel like causing a fuss in front of the other officers. So, he stayed quiet and instead took a look at what Jane was now staring intently at... the Galaxy Map. He watched Jane walk up the steps and look over the railing at the map.

_"Thirty seconds until contact."_

Garrus sighed and closed his eyes. As far as he was concerned, there was no reason this shouldn't work as planned... and if it didn't, they probably wouldn't survive to tell the tale. Some malfunction may kill them in the next thirty seconds, but he had faith that they'd survive.

_"Ten seconds until contact."_

_"Five seconds until contact._

_Three._

_Two._

_One."_

Garrus felt a familiar pull in his gut of the FTL drive kicking in. That was where it all went wrong.

The force of the travel slammed Garrus' body into the floor, as well as each body on the ship. He heard cries of surprise, and heard Jane's grunt of pain as the blow threw her down the small flight of stairs up to the Galaxy Map. It was all Garrus could do to move his limbs. He managed to raise his head and saw Jane and Traynor beside each other, both struggling to raise their heads and failing. If he had been of a clearer mind, he would've seen that the other human crew mates were suffering the same pain due to their physiology.

The force only lasted for about a minute before it ended just as quickly as it came. Garrus groaned and raised his head, and was able to clearly see that the human crew mates were having far more difficulty recovering from the ordeal. He shuffled over on his arms and knees to Jane and Traynor.

"You two alright?" He grunted.

"Joker, what the hell happened?!" Jane had finally managed to get her hand up to her communication device in her ear, wincing all the while as she did so. What followed was complete dead sound. No effort to communicate back. Garrus grew uneasy. "JOKER!"

"I'll get him." Garrus grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. The other members of the crew were still struggling to sit up straight. Garrus staggered for a step, his ear canals ringing with the sudden shift in pressure and height, and then he started to walk slowly towards the cockpit. He gained speed as he grew accustomed to normal pressure, and by the time he got to the hallway, he managed a slow run. Then, he saw Joker's limp body draped over his chair, and he broke out into a fast sprint.

"Shit! Captain, when you people can pick yourself up off the floor, we need medical staff to the cockpit." Garrus barked into the comm link. He straightened Joker out in his seat and the unconscious pilot gave a groan of pain. Garrus didn't need to be a doctor to know that Joker had broken quite a few bones in his body... the biggest indication was the unnatural contortion his right arm was now bent into. Garrus grimaced and felt along the rest of Joker's arm, feeling more breaks, and then his torso, feeling broken ribs there. He was almost afraid to see what else.

"Hang in there buddy, help's on the way." He murmered quietly as he looked at Joker's monitors. Then, he fell slack-jawed. He raised a hand to his comm link.

"Shepard... we're not in the Exodus Cluster."

"Then where the FUCK are we Garrus?!" Jane practically snarled through the comm link.

"Sigurd's Cradle."

He heard silence for a moment and then Jane's shaky voice. "That's on the other side of the galaxy."

"I know that, Jane."

* * *

**Chapter Notes**

Forgive the flufftrain halfway through the chapter. I couldn't help myself. It was Valentines Day, and I wrote that in the days leading up to it. I took a break on the day because it was my fourth anniversary and I'm pretty sure my boyfriend would've murdered my face had I gone into my writing again that day.

That being said:

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN.


	2. FTL

**STORY** **NOTES**

Guest: Indeed, hell of a cliffhanger. I like writing cliffhangers. I externally hate other people who write cliffhangers. I internally love them though.

Kasena: FTW!

LegionN7: Gabby being on the away team will probably not be insanely prominent until I have need for her. That being said, interesting theories on what happened. :3

* * *

Not even twenty-four hours had passed since Admiral Hackett and Shepard had left the bridge, and already Jane was back to pacing, a furious look on her face. She had been commanded quite verbally out of the med bay by Dr. Chakwas. The words had mostly consisted of Chakwas raising her voice for perhaps the first time that Garrus had ever known her, demanding that she get 'the bloody hell' out of her medical wing. Jane had left, looking like a scolded child. Garrus knew that ultimately, the medical officer of the ship had the authority when it came to injured personnel and the captain 90% of the time was expected to obey lest a life be potentially lost. So he wasn't all together surprised. However, this had done nothing for Jane, who had taken her pacing to a few feet outside of the med bay doors. Garrus was leaning against one of the tables in the nearby mess hall himself, his electric blue eyes following Shepard's pacing. He wasn't feeling terribly good about this situation either. Their ship was stranded in the Terminus Systems, and they didn't even have the convenience of being close to Rannoch to request the aid of the quarians. Their best pilot had tens of bones broken in his body, and it was unknown how long he would be unconscious due to his injuries. But there was one thing that Garrus had to keep reminding himself. It wasn't like this was the first time the ship had been in the unknown. The Omega 4 relay alone was a massive distance from home in comparison to Sigurd's Cradle. At the worst case scenario, it would take them a year of careful planning and rationing to make their way back to Citadel space. The mission was not a suicide mission yet, and Shepard as a simple Commander had managed to bring home every single member of her crew from an actual suicide mission in which none of them were expected to survive.

Garrus could understand Jane's concern for Joker. Jane would do anything for Joker; Jane had even once died so that Joker would survive. Not only was the crippled man their best chance for getting home, Jane treated Joker like a little brother. Jane had suffered heavily after she found out that her actions in destroying the Reapers had also destroyed the love of Joker's life, EDI. Jane had also been one of the top voices to push for EDI's re-engineering. After taking EDI's blackbox out of the Normandy's systems, there was now a crew working on EDI's software and hardware, trying to find a way to rebuild the AI. Though Joker had remained sceptical that EDI would ever return back to who she was, he had wished the engineers good luck in doing so. What Garrus didn't understand was why Jane was acting this way. Normally when she felt helpless, she did something; ANYTHING, to fix that. Garrus let out a humming breath through his closed mouth and nose, and then tilted his head questioningly at the Captain.

"Why the pacing?"

"I have nothing to go off of until I gather more information." the woman in front of him replied shortly. Garrus could tell that her nerves would not be so apparent if there were another crew member watching her. She'd just bottle it up. Not that bottling emotions wasn't a useful thing every once in a while, but Garrus knew that Shepard had a limit before she broke. He sighed as Jane started to pace again and shook his head.

"I don't see how this is getting information."

"I need Joker awake."

"For information, or for your own conscience?" Garrus asked with a flat tone. He saw Jane stop and narrow her eyes at the turian, who raised his hands in submission. "Jane, it's my job to ask these questions. I'm only being logical." He spotted Jane's face contort as she tried to disguise her anger, and Garrus shook his head. He adjusted his position by standing straight and placing his hands behind his back, then started to walk towards her slowly. "You can ask him what you need to know later. For now, if I were you, I'd get my ass down to Engineering and demand to know the details of what happened. That FTL travel was NOT normal... and we need to figure out why before we can plan how to get home. Think about it, Jane. We've got a connected mass relay between Sigurd's Cradle and the Sol Systems. We reconstructed our own mass relays... we were under the impression that all Reaper-based technology was damaged or destroyed, and needed to be rebuilt. Working off of that theory... who built this mass relay?" Garrus jabbed a thumb behind him, although he had no idea whether the mass relay was behind them, in front of them, or anywhere in between. All he knew was that they were hovering in space, and nearby was the mass relay that could either kill them or take them home. "We can't answer that yet, but we can figure out what happened to get us here. But that means that our Captain needs to stay calm, take a deep breath, forget that her pilot is currently in intense treatment conducted by the best goddamn combat medic in Citadel space, and she needs to get down to Engineering and get some answers."

There was a long pause after he was done his pep talk, and Jane was giving him a stony look. Garrus was actually starting to wonder if he had gone too far, but he couldn't imagine why. She had referred to him as a second-in-command. Did that mean something different in the Alliance? Had he stepped on some sort of human taboo? He stopped walking towards her and folded his arms over his chest, raising an eye ridge at her. He wouldn't back down from this. It needed to be said. She needed something to remind her exactly what she needed to do and who she was to her crew.

"Jane, I know this is probably overwhelming, to have things go wrong all the time. But this occurred for a reason. We just need to find out what."

The stony look left her face and Garrus would've smiled triumphantly had he not thought it rude. He nailed it. He figured out what was truly bothering her, and he could work with that if he needed to. He saw Jane sigh shakily and nod.

"Yeah, you're right." She breathed, and then she looked once more at the med bay doors. Garrus walked the rest of the distance to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked down at his hand, and then looked up into his eyes. He tried to make them look as comforting as he possibly could, which seemed to work, because he felt the muscles in her shoulder relax a little. He tilted his head towards the elevator.

"Come on." He started to walk, and was reassured when Jane followed in step beside him on his left side.

* * *

Garrus had been the one to call the individuals gathered into the War Room. Ken Donelly, Gabriella Daniels, Greg Adams, James Vega, Jane and himself were seated around the rectangular table. Jane was at one end of the table, while Garrus was at the other end. Donelly and Daniels sat beside each other, closest to the window, and Adams and Vega sat closest to the doorway. Garrus saw Jane look directly at Adams and nod, frowning.

"Alright. What happened. Adams?"

"Whatever it was, it wasn't the Normandy's systems. Joker hit the mass relay at exactly the same timing that he always has. The theory was sound. Our systems surprisingly suffered no damage and no malfunction. The only conclusion I can come to is that the mass relays are missing something that the original schematics had."

"Like?"

"No idea Captain." the elderly engineer shrugged. "I don't specialize in mass relay theory, I specialize in drive cores. I'd have to actually have the schematics in my hands to figure out what was wrong, and even then I don't think we'd have the resources." He rubbed his wiry hands together and placed them on the table. "I'm sorry Captain."

"It was worth a shot." Jane wearily replied. She looked at Donelly and Daniels. "How about you two? Any theories on how we survived that crap?"

"A ruddy miracle." The scottish male replied.

"Ken..." Gabby growled and then she looked at the Captain. "I think we can thank Joker for that. The ship is recording a sudden reverse of the thrusters within a second of accelerating to FTL speeds. Joker must have realized that something was wrong before the rest of us did. If he hadn't acted as quickly as he did, we'd probably all be pulp."

Garrus usually felt uncomfortable when he couldn't control the dangerous situations. Space travel was one of them. He felt a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach as Gabby continued.

"I'm not sure I entirely understand. Why a reverse of the thrusters? Wouldn't that send us the other direction?"

"No." Gabby replied. "About halfway to a destination, pilots are required to reverse the thrusters in order to decelerate enough to not be completely destroyed upon arrival. Instead of waiting until halfway, the minute that things went out of control, Joker reversed the thrusters and that's why we're in Sigurd's Cradle and not in the voids of space." Gabby smiled. "Although, interestingly enough, we were travelling fast enough that we could have covered thirty light years in about a day."

Garrus blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. That's about the recorded speed of Reaper travel."

Jane, Vega and Garrus looked baffled, meanwhile Donelly and Adams had grim looks of understanding on their faces. Garrus heard Jane ask, "Could we even live through that over an extended period of time?"

"Nope, but a Reaper could." Donelly quipped.

There was a long pause from everyone at the table. Garrus himself was trying to wrap his head around the information. They could make their way back via the mass relay, but it was almost a certain death to do so. Hopefully the researchers who had been recording their mission either knew what happened or knew well enough not to send out a team after them, so a message back to the Alliance would hardly be an issue. Now they just had to figure out how to get home... and preferably how to do it before these people's grandchildren were the ones flying the ship home.

He heard Donelly pipe up again. "Captain, we've also got a small problem. Th' speed o' th' travel almost overloaded our FTL drive. If we don' get th' element zero static discharged soon... well... th' hull will fry us. An' I dunno 'bout you, but I don' like th' smell o' fried human."

"Or turian." Garrus rumbled quietly.

"Aye, aye, turian's pretty bad smellin' too."

Garrus watched Jane's face grow sullen and he saw her stare at Donelly. "How much longer do we have?"

"Well, we definitely won' be able ta make 'nother mass relay jump." Donelly replied. "Other than tha', I think we'll be okay until we can find a dockin' station."

"So, a planet or a planet-sized mass." Garrus murmered. He pressed a button on the desk and brought up a three dimensional and interactive map of the galaxy. Then he tapped his middle finger on the top left hand corner, bringing up the Terminus Systems, and zoomed in the sights until he found Sigurd's Cradle. He frowned quietly.

"Well, we're nearby a fuel depot. It should have a docking station." His mandibles were clenched to his face as he stared at the map.

All of the time that the six had been talking, James Vega had stayed uncharacteristically silent. The normally chatty and joking Vega had become a little bit quieter since he had gotten back from his first round of N7 training. Maybe the thought of not being able to complete it had sobered the Latino man a bit. But he spoke now and directed his gaze at Gabby... if one thing could be said, it was that James had an easier time talking to the ladies, even still.

"Is there any way we could get some kind of... I dunno... whatever info you guys need off of the mass relay?"

Gabby blinked. "The one we just came through? We wouldn't be able to analyze it without the proper facilities. I don't see much of a point."

"It'll help our scientists when we get home." Vega countered.

"If we get home." Donelly retorted.

"There's no if." Jane replied firmly, silencing the argument before it even began. She looked at the three younger crew members and then glanced at Adams. "Would there be a point to seeing if we could analyze the mass relay?"

Adams shook his head. "I wouldn't risk it. We don't know what could happen if we get too close. We could do a long-range scan, but that's something our scanners should've already done automatically." He seemed to ponder the situation for a minute. Garrus watched him place his index finger as a cup around his chin. "Perhaps we could get a short-range scan when and if we use that as our method for getting home."

"I don't think that's happening for a long time." Jane inputted. "If we attempt that kind of thing, we need Joker, and Joker's not in the best shape." She looked to Vega, and then Garrus. Garrus and Jane locked eyes for a moment, and Garrus couldn't help but feel hopelessly lost. This was something that he would've needed more time to think about... he was the type to wait for the perfect opportunity, and they couldn't afford that kind of time. His confusion seemed to translate to his face, or at least translate for someone who could actually read turian emotions. Jane picked up on it immediately and turned her head to Vega.

"Any ideas, Vega?"

"None, Lola." James' brow furrowed in frustration. "The best we can do is maybe find an allied colony? See what provisions we can get, and then travel from fuel depot to fuel depot? It's what Garrus had us do when we got shipwrecked on Eden Prime..."

Garrus felt Jane's eyes on him and he felt considerably uncomfortable. Tali had told Jane that Garrus lead the mission to answer her distress signal, but Garrus couldn't remember if Jane had been told the part about shipwrecking on Eden Prime. He coughed quietly. "It wasn't long after you destroyed the Reapers. The whiplash of the beam broke our FTL speed and Joker landed us on Eden Prime."

"Landed? We crashed."

"We'd be dead if it weren't for him." Garrus scolded Vega. Vega fell silent, and Garrus looked at Jane. "We stopped at every fuel depot we could until we got back to the Sol Systems. But that was a week trip. This... this will take us much longer if we can't get that mass relay operational." He raised an eye ridge and saw Jane nod solemnly.

There was a long pause again, one that was filled with most of the people around the table staring at anywhere but each other. Then, Jane let out a long sigh. "Alright. Adams... could there be a potential way to, instead of changing the mass relay to suit our needs, we adapt to the needs of the mass relay? Is there any way that we can get back through that relay alive with the right calibrations, the right modifications?"

"I..." Adams thought for a moment and then he grimaced. He shook his head. "Captain, I'd have to have more time to think about that. Maybe there's a way, maybe not. If there is, the clue isn't coming to me."

Jane nodded. "Right. Well. That's your homework. I want to know if there's any way possible before I send us all on a trek across the galaxy." She looked at Garrus. "Garrus, our guns. Are they operational?"

Garrus barked a laugh. "Does Jane Shepard spit in Death's eye? Yes, Captain, the guns are perfectly fine. I calibrated them myself."

"I know. You're incredibly fond of them if memory serves. Something about them being a love."

He deserved that.

"We may need them. We're going to fly this ship into the fuel depot and refuel. Hopefully we can get grounded while we're there as well so that we don't fry in our sleep. Then, after that, we're going to go to Franklin."

Garrus frowned. He remembered Franklin. He remembered getting into a scuffle with batarians on that moon, and having only five minutes to input a kill switch to Javelin missiles. In the end, it had come down to Shepard making a choice between saving the spaceport and thus resources, or saving thousands of civilian lives. She had done the noble thing and chose to save those lives.

"What will we do there? The spaceport's blown up, remember?"

"There are two Alliance spaceports on that moon. We're going to the one that's not in smithereens." Jane replied with a hint of sarcasm. The woman leaned over the table and pressed a button on the top of it. "Miss Traynor, if you could send a message to General Carlos Newt of the Alliance base Franklin, inform them that the SSV Normandy SR-2 is inbound on their location and is requesting to dock."

"Yes ma'am." Traynor's voice crackled through the speaker. "ETA?"

"Within twenty-four hours."

"Yes ma'am."

Jane straightened herself up and Garrus looked at the other four around the table. Each had a grim look on their face, and Garrus thought that he probably didn't look much better. There wasn't a good chance that they were getting out of this without some kind of sacrifice.

"Get me as much information on what's happened as you can. James, I want you ready for the away party. Gabriella..." Garrus spotted the woman sit up straighter and spotted the look of surprise on her face. "I'll be taking you with me if I have need of an engineer. Be ready."

"Wha... Gabby?!" Donelly yelped. The Scotsman stared at his girlfriend.

"Donelly, Gabby volunteered for the away teams."

"I hadn't told him yet." Daniels commented quietly.

Donelly looked like he was about ready to explode with protest. Garrus sighed and placed one hand on the engineer's shoulder. He knew what was going through Kenneth's mind, in a sense. He had always known that Jane could handle herself in danger, but there wasn't ever a time where he didn't have the aching feeling of worry... especially after Jane's death.

"Donelly... now's not the time. We need her. We'll keep her safe. We look out for each other on the away missions. She'll be fine. Remember, she's still a soldier."

"Fat load o' comfort." Donelly grumbled.

Garrus laughed quietly, his harmonic tones resonating throughout the room. "Trust me, I know. It sucks when someone you care about is reckless-"

Garrus heard a grumble from Jane and yet he barrelled through anyway.

"- but you just got to trust that they'll come back safe. And Daniels will come back safe if we ever take her. Understand me?"

"... aye." Donelly replied in a small and insecure tone.

* * *

An ensign by the name of James Richards had taken Joker's spot at the helm. It was a smooth sail to the closest fuel depot, one without many problems at all. So, while Jane couldn't be with Joker, a few of the other crew members had made it their job to check on their favourite pilot. However, Garrus knew that it drove the good doctor absolutely crazy to have so many people come to visit. So Garrus normally kept his visits short, coming only to make sure he was still stable and to check on his progress.

"Thankfully, he's taking to the medigel this time. It will be a fast mending of his bones... probably right in time for him to break them again." Dr. Chakwas reported to Garrus. She frowned. "He hasn't been taking his medication lately. I'll need to speak to him about that."

"Do you know why?" Garrus asked.

"Honestly? He probably became so accustomed to EDI reminding him to take his pills, he forgot. Or he doesn't have the heart to keep his treatment up anymore, in which case, things became quite a bit more complicated." She frowned and looked at Garrus. "He tries, Garrus, but I worry for him. I've never seen him so depressed."

"We all worry about him." Garrus commented. He stared at the unconscious man, who had his right arm in a splint and his chest bound. His customary ball cap wasn't on his head, and his head was showing short brown hair that matched his scruffy beard. He looked away from Joker and rubbed the back of his neck, sighing quietly.

"Can't you speak with him?"

"Me?" Garrus snapped his head back to look at Chakwas. "Why me?"

"Haven't you gone through the loss of a lover before?" Dr. Chakwas frowned as she folded her arms. Garrus blinked.

"Not... really. I found her within a week." Garrus reminded Chakwas. He assumed that she was referring to when Jane had destroyed the Reapers, and the fact that everyone thought her to be dead. But Chakwas shook her head.

"No... I mean when she actually died."

Garrus' mandibles twitched a little, but it wasn't a smile on his face... it was confusion. "I don't think I follow. I wasn't involved with Shepard at that time." But he saw Chakwas wave her hand in front of her face, dismissing his argument.

"Garrus, anyone could have seen the respect that you had for her. She was your teacher, and if Omega was any indication, you cared for her more than that." Garrus' ears were ringing with alarm, but Chakwas continued on. "You... when you were injured by that missile on Omega, you said a couple of things in your sleep-"

Garrus raised his hands. "Look... Doctor, I don't want to know. Keep it between us... or... rather in your head. I'll see what I can do for Joker when he wakes up, if you think it's that important." Garrus felt incredibly uncomfortable now, and wanted nothing more then to get the hell out of the med bay. "You know where to find me if you need me." He said in parting, and then he briskly walked out of the med bay, leaving what was probably either a knowledgeable or confused Chakwas to tend to Joker.

When the doors shut behind him, he stood still in front of it with his back to the door. He closed his eyes and took a breath. The problem was that Chakwas had hit too close to the mark. While he wasn't in love with Jane at the time, or at least he thought he wasn't, Jane had been a big influence on his life. Jane had been his mentor, had taught him how to feel empowered yet still adhere to the rules. When reports came in that the Normandy had been destroyed, Garrus HAD gone to Omega to escape the memories... but at the time, he was just grieving a lost mentor and friend. What he had found there had changed his life forever... had given him a purpose again, until Jane came back to life two years later. He found teammates to lead, he found a reason to keep existing; to clean up the shafts and alleys of Omega. Otherwise, he was just a washed-up C-Sec officer who was incredibly unhappy with the way his life was turning. Saren had given him an adrenaline rush to track down and apprehend. Jane had given him teachings that he would probably take to his grave, teachings in morality and respect.

But Chakwas had mentioned that he mentioned her in his delirious state, after he had been shot. He had mentioned Jane?

Was that why when she started to hit on him not long after that incident that he had been so accepting of it?

Garrus frowned and shook his head. He had no time to think about this sort of crap. They had to get back to Citadel space. He'd use all these emotional feelings later, when he had to. He gathered his calm and zen, taking a deep breath, and then exhaling. Then he walked towards the CIC.

* * *

When he arrived on the CIC Deck, he saw Jane hunched over her private terminal and facing away from her. But Garrus knew her better; although he teased her that he would always be the better shot, he knew how good the infiltrator's senses were. He walked towards her and stopped on her right hand side, keeping his hands behind his back respectfully.

"Status?" Jane asked him. He saw her look up and he grew worried when he saw a slightly haunted look on her face. This was not going to be a good week for Jane Shepard. He decided to make the report as positive as he could.

"Joker's body is responding well to the treatment. Chakwas is not entirely sure when he'll open his eyes but he'll definitely live to fly another day." Garrus reassured her. He didn't mention that Joker hadn't been taking his medication and that his injuries may have been preventable, or at least less severe. That was something that Jane didn't need for the mission. He looked around the deck, where people were running around and working furiously. "Status up here?"

"Proceeding as planned. We're inbound on Franklin now." Jane said. But Garrus heard the apprehension in her voice, and raised an eye ridge.

"But?" He prompted.

He saw Jane sigh and close her eyes. "But General Newt hasn't answered our transmissions." She shook her head. "Which means... well... it could mean quite a lot. But something is either preventing our messages from going onto the moon..."

"Or something is jamming their signal out of the moon." Garrus frowned and folded his arms. "What's your theory?"

"Something is jamming them." Jane said firmly. "There's more reasons for a potential jam on their end, and it's not just sabotage. Solar conditions, malfunctions in their systems... it could be anything."

_"Captain,"_ Richards' high voice piped through the speakers. _"You may want to take a look at this."_

"What is it?" Jane asked as she walked around the Galaxy Map towards the cockpit. Garrus was following on her five, as he normally did.

_"It looks like a turian vessel?"_ the confused ensign replied.

"A what." Garrus rumbled in disbelief. He caught up to Jane's right hand side and the two of them shot glances at each other. Both were trying to figure out whether the other could make more sense of the situation. Garrus quickly saw that Jane was just as lost as he was. At least that was a good thing. He wasn't the only one completely in the dark.

_"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's-"_

"-the same build as a Heirarchy vessel." Richards, a tiny lad of Egyptian descent, no long had to speak over the speakers, because Jane and Garrus had entered the cockpit. They leaned like mirror images over Richards' chair, making the small man probably feel very uncomfortable. Garrus peered at the ship and frowned.

"Yeah, that's definitely Turian." He ran a talon along the hull of the ship. "That hull proves it. See the resemblance to the Normandy?"

"A little, I guess. What's it doing all the way out here?"

Garrus raised a hand to the comm link on his head. "Traynor, try to flag that ship. I'd like to speak with their commanding officer."

"They're already ahead of you."

_"SSV Normandy, this is the XO of the HSS Menae. State your business."_ A hollow and crackly high voice came through the speakers. Garrus immediately picked it out as a female voice.

"You first." Garrus countered. He motioned for Jane to remain silent, to which Jane obliged with a look of unease. "What is the HSS Menae doing so far from Citadel space? Aren't you a ship of the TEC?"

"The wha...?" Richards whispered to Jane.

"Turian Engineering Corps." Jane muttered back quietly.

"Oh."

_"Yes. We have been sent on a specific investigation of the Far Rim. Our understanding was that the SSV Normandy was still docked in Citadel space. State your business."_

Garrus grimaced. People thought that he was a stick in the mud... dealing with his own people usually showed the humans he associated with how easy-going he was.

"Honestly? We're lost. We were testing a mass relay connection between two Systems Alliance relay points, and instead of landing in the Exodus Cluster, our ship malfunctioned and we were sent here to Sigurd's Cradle. We just want to dock here to gather some supplies while we try to figure out what to do."

There was a long pause and then finally the voice came back through the speakers. _"That's going to be a problem, SSV Normandy."_

"Are we going to have a problem here, Menae?" Garrus asked sharply.

_"You misunderstand me. We won't stop you, but that spaceport is compromised."_

Garrus registered the look of alarm on the other two humans in the cockpit and frowned. "What do you mean?"

_"I think it would be better to speak in person about it. Requesting permission to board."_

"Granted." Garrus replied without hesitation. The comm link turned off and Garrus glanced over at Jane, who was now looking incredibly alarmed.

"Compromised... how the hell...?"

"They'll explain once they get aboard, I guess."

It wasn't long before a walkway extended between the two ships and their airlocks. Garrus and Jane remained by the door and spent most of it in awkward silence. Then, the door hissed open.

Out emerged three turians, and Garrus could easily spot that one of them was female. All of them were helmeted and wearing black armor. The one in the middle took off her helmet, and Garrus stood in shocked silence.

"Hello Garrus. I thought you'd be the one I was talking to." The female turian had the same shade as Garrus, and the same blue clan markings. She had a far thinner face than Garrus, and lacked a crest at the back of her head, but otherwise had close to the same build and height as Garrus. Her mandibles were flaring, showing a giant smile on her face. Garrus finally found his words and beamed.

"Solana!"

* * *

**CHAPTER NOTES**

I finally got my Solana in. Now to fit in more Joker.


	3. Held Back

A/N: Part of this chapter is written from a different perspective. Like Mass Effect 2, Joker does occasionally become the main character. This is one of those instances. It wasn't a question of whether or not I could find a different way; it just seemed like the right way. Also, I apologize for how long it took to release this chapter; I got an idea halfway through that I wanted to incorporate, and I wanted to make sure I was satisfied with the chapter before I released it.

* * *

_Twenty four hours earlier..._

"Ten seconds until contact.

Five seconds until contact.

Three.

Two.

One."

The force that he felt on his body snapped his head backwards. Thankfully, nothing broke in his neck. He could feel his ribs cracking under the pressure though. He let loose a cry of agony and gritted his teeth. Behind him he could hear the cries of the ship's crew as they themselves hit the deck. He raised his arm into the air, and slammed his palm against the controls.

The sudden reverse of thrusters knocked his body forward and made him collide with the arm of his chair. He yelled out again, feeling more bones break in his body. He wasn't built to take this kind of pressure or hell, he wasn't even built to be ragdolled around. He was fragile, and one of these days, he swore to God, they'd have a mission where he didn't shatter like a china doll. Joker was the toughest Vrolik Syndrome victim that had ever explored the Milky Way Galaxy. He may break like a china doll, but he prided himself on still being able to keep his head while in the pain.

He grimaced and looked down at his right arm. It was now bent out of shape from the collision as well. He hadn't even noticed that one until he tried to use it again. He raised his left arm and tapped a few buttons on the screen. They started to decelerate and came abruptly out of FTL travel, almost as quick as they had gone through the relay. He stared up at his screens, and then when he realized that he couldn't see the screen in front of him clearly, he blinked.

"I think... I'm passing out."

There was the statement of the century. Joker didn't even care that he had suddenly contracted a case of stating the obvious. He just looked around him and then to the co-pilot's seat, tears welling up in his eyes from both the stress and the pain. He thought he saw a faint image of a woman, made of a silvery material, a beautiful woman who stared at him with unblinking blue eyes.

"Y'know... I could've really used your help..."

Then, the man slumped over his chair, and knew no more.

* * *

"Jeff."

Joker's eyes opened blearily. He was still dressed in his uniform, his ball cap still on his head. Miraculously, he was able to move all of his limbs with no difficulty at all. He was sitting in a leather armchair with cushy seats, and honestly felt the most comfortable that he ever had in his life. All around him, he could see nothing but space. The stars twinkled all around him. He laid his head back and stared up at the void, smiling faintly.

"Jeff."

He heard the voice louder this time, and turned his head to find where the voice was coming from. He swallowed when he saw a familiar body. It was made out of a grey material, and while it was definitely not organic, it was incredibly flexible and malleable. It had a female's shape, with a dark black material over the spots where a human would normally be clothed. The visor it wore was an orange colour. The female robot walked towards Jeff's chair and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"EDI..." Joker breathed.

Her lips curled into a smile. While most would question whether it was a real smile or not, Joker knew better; he knew EDI better than anyone. He raised a hand and touched hers.

"Jeff. You have sustained injuries."

"I don't feel them." Joker reassured her. "I... wait... but I look fine."

"But you have sustained injuries. You must wake up. The crew is worried for your well being. You are needed, Jeff."

"I don't give a shit." Joker replied bitterly. "I'm here. I'm happy here. I can see you. Dammit EDI, if I can't see you out there... I don't care."

"But you do, Jeff." He saw the robot move around him, then she sat on his knee. She felt so amazingly light... It was comforting that he was actually able to do this. She raised a hand to touch his cheek tenderly, and he kept his hand on hers. He squeezed her hand lightly.

"No, I'm here now. I won't leave you."

He actually heard a laugh from EDI. It was highly synthesized, but it made him happy that she was finally learning the proper responses for humour. "Jeff, I would not truly leave you. There are copies of my program, several of them. But I need you to wake up. I need you to open your eyes."

Joker shook his head violently. "No. No, no! It's not the same! It's not!"

"There will be a day that I will see you again, Jeff. But... yes. I will not be the same. I will be an AI who has never had your teachings. But you have to keep going, Jeff. Do not be afraid to move forward with your life. There will always be a copy of my program, watching over you and your people." EDI cupped his face and stared into his eyes.

"Promise me you'll move forward."

"I... just... need time, EDI." Joker murmered.

"That did not answer my request, Jeff."

Joker took a deep, shuddering breath. "Yes. I promise that I'll move on. One day."

"Do not dwell on me, Jeff Moreau."

Joker wasn't entirely sure why EDI was so forceful about that point, but he didn't have much chance to ask. He felt EDI's cold lips on his forehead, and he closed his eyes again.

* * *

There had been precious little time for a reunion, and as much as Garrus was very happy to know that his sister was well, there were many questions to be asked. Garrus, Solana, Solana's guards and Jane had all proceeded to the War Room to talk, and Solana's guards were asked to wait outside the door. Upon their entrance into the windowed space, Jane closed the door. Garrus suddenly felt a flurry of arms around his neck and responded in kind, their armor clanking together as Solana rested her head quickly against his and then pulled back, grinning.

"Who'd have thought I'd see my big brother all the way out here?"

"Me? I thought you were supposed to be by the Far Rim?" Garrus let go of her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Spirits, it's good to see you're alive. Dad and I were getting worried." He felt nothing but relief, as if a large burden had been lifted off of him. He had already lost too much as a result of the war, he didn't need to lose his little sister.

"Yeah, sorry. Turns out that our transmissions cut off at soon as we hit the Attican Traverse. We weren't in range. Even before that point, reception was absolutely crappy." The vivid turian girl replied. She stepped away from him and shrugged. "And we just haven't gotten to the Far Rim yet. We got an emergency signal from this station and figured we owed it to the humans to go check it out." She turned around and Garrus spotted Jane staying quiet and collected in front of her. "So, is this her?"

"What? Solana, what about the station-"

"Are you Commander Jane Shepard?" Solana interrupted, as she walked closer to Jane. Jane smiled politely.

"Captain, now."

"Wow. Got upped one rank for your trouble, huh?"

"Sol!" Garrus protested.

"Oh c'mon Garrus. The Hierarchy is WAAAAY stricter than any Alliance system and even they would've made her a General for all of that work." Solana countered.

"That wasn't my point..."

He heard Jane giggle a little and saw her hold out her hand. "I chose to only be promoted to Captain. I still want my ship, after all."

"Ohhhhh. Lack of ambition. Got it." Solana chirped as she shook Jane's hand. Garrus groaned.

"Solana, you really need to learn more about human tradition and hierarchy-"

"Which I'm sure you can teach me all about, you being an expert on humanity and all!" Solana replied back sarcastically as she swivelled her head to stare at Garrus. Garrus' mandibles flattened against his face. But this was all greeted by one of Jane's soft laughs.

"Well, I'll be more then happy to teach you both. I'm glad that you're safe, Miss Vakarian. Your brother has been especially worried about you. But if I may, can I ask that we get to know each other later? You mentioned something about an emergency signal from the Franklin spaceport?"

Solana grinned. "Oh you're good. You smooth talker, you. Yeah, let's shut up about this and get to work quickly. Sooner we get this done, sooner I can invite you to my ship for some wine and we can talk about how the hell you scooped my brother up." Solana hummed, the harmonics in her voice making it sound even more dynamic as she took a seat quickly at the table.

Garrus didn't exactly know what Solana meant by 'scooping her brother up', and to be honest, he didn't want to know what they were going to talk about later. He knew his sister too well. He sat down at the table opposite Solana, on one of the wide sides, and Jane took a seat beside him on his right side. Solana sat down and folded her fingers together. Her face immediately shifted, as if an entirely different personality had taken over, and she started to speak.

"About three weeks ago, we received a distress signal from Franklin, asking for assistance from any ship in the area- Alliance or otherwise." Solana's voice hummed deeply, showing far more concern than before. "They described a phenomenon that was happening to the staff of the station. Multiple reports of memory loss, sleep-walking, voices that weren't actually there. At first it seemed to be an isolated incident, the report said. It was isolated to a crew that had come back from a excursion to the Psi Tophet system, to a planet classified only as 2181 Despoina."

"What was the crew doing there?" Garrus rumbled.

"They were investigating reports of the MSV Monarch going MIA in the area. They managed to find the MSV Monarch, but the report details that some kind of electrical current fired from the ocean and tried to down their ship. The crew managed to get down to the ship without being caught, and they found a ghost ship. The crew of the ship was gone." She frowned and her eyes slid to Jane. "Forgive me Captain, but that doesn't seem normal. The ship was marooned in the middle of an ocean, and last I checked, your race wasn't known for its aquatic ability."

"That's because we're not." Jane commented grimly. "Which makes you wonder where the hell the crew went. If they were dead, there'd be signs of it."

"There were, according to the report. Bloodshed everywhere on the ship. All of the clues pointed to the crew attacking each other."

"Each other?" Garrus asked, a little alarmed.

"Limbs were found. No other signs of sentient or organic life. Just human arms and legs. Some of them had bite marks. From human molars."

It was enough to turn Garrus' stomach, and he couldn't even imagine what it was doing to Jane. He glanced sideways at her and saw that her skin had become a paler shade of white, but otherwise she looked okay.

"Cannibalism?"

"It seems that way." Solana replied apologetically. "I did not know that your people resorted to that-"

"They don't." Garrus and Jane replied at the same time.

"Then that dictates that there was outside influence. They found a sphere on the ship, one of a technology that they had never seen before. The crew thought that it may be linked to the Protheans, and perhaps supply an answer to the problem of the mass relays. They brought it back to Franklin. But then the symptoms grew worse."

"What? You mean that they started to eat people as well?" Garrus heard Jane ask with a shaky voice. He saw Solana shake her head.

"No, nothing like that, but they had a theory that it was potentially outside influence that inspired them to resort to such means in the first place. The crew of the investigation were starting to suffer amnesia, insomnia, symptoms that were very similar to Reaper indoctrination."

Garrus immediately placed his hand on Jane's arm, just to show her that he was there. They hadn't talked much about the Reapers other than for mock bravado since he had rescued Jane from the London rubble. Jane's fingers grazed the back of his hand and rested there. It seemed she was glad for the support.

"The spaceport reported that the workers were now suffering the same symptoms as observed by the crew that answered Monarch's signal."

Garrus saw Jane hang her head and glare at the table. He gave her arm a small squeeze.

"The spaceport on Franklin has now been declared a quarantine zone by the HSS Menae and by Captain Erenas Rolten. I'm sorry, Captain Shepard..." Solana's electric blue eyes hardened. "But I cannot allow your ship to dock at Spaceport Franklin."

Garrus had never seen this cold side to his sister before. She was happy, loving, carefree, innocent. Something had changed her; whether it was her years in the military thus far, or whether it had been the Reaper War, or even the death of their mother. But Solana wasn't known for refusing anyone anything. She always tried to find a way around the rules, and at least try to make both parties as happy as she possibly could. But to outright refuse... Garrus opened his mouth to speak, to plead and even try to make Solana see reason, but Jane beat him to the punch.

"You can't do that. That's a direct violation of our rights as Citadel citizens. We have the right to investigate the matters of our own race."

"You're right. You do." She pointed a finger at Garrus. "But you do not have a right to endanger one of our race. You've left yourself quite the liability, Captain."

Garrus froze, like a Klixen in a red laser sight. She was going to envoke that? She was seriously going to play the card that a human was endangering a turian... especially after all that he had done with said human?! He hated being a political pawn. He narrowed his eyes and growled.

"Solana, don't you fucking-"

"I'll do what needs to be done." Solana replied coldly. "That's the nice thing about these loopholes. I can't command Jane Shepard to turn her ship around and go right back the way she came. What Captain Rolten is enforcing is close to an act of war. BUT, I can envoke the rights of OUR race, and make the little miss choose; duty, or love?" Solana glanced at Shepard with a frown. "You've a choice, Captain. Garrus Vakarian comes onto the HSS Menae and you endanger the rest of your human crew, or you can save your entire crew the ordeal." She gripped her hands together. "I don't do this out of spite, Shepard. I'm trying to protect you and your team. You CANNOT go down onto that moon."

"Bullshit I can't." Jane retorted acidly. "By not allowing me to go down to that moon, instead of endangering one turian life, you're endangering thousands of human lives. A far more severe case, in my opinion."

"Then it seems we're at an impasse." Solana replied smoothly. Her mandibles fluttered a little. "If only a certain Captain were to be convinced that he could send a mostly turian crew down to the moon to investigate the source? Maybe said Captain could be convinced that turians wouldn't be affected by this phenomenon afflicting the humans?"

Garrus narrowed his eyes. "Solana, what're you saying?" He watched Solana pin her eyes on him.

"Talk to Rolten. If you can convince him that you, Jane and I could go down to the moon and Jane would be the only liability, then he may be willing to lift the quarantine for us three... but only us three."

Jane leaned over the table, and her face had a dark look on it. Garrus felt chills run down his spine. This was the one part of Shepard that he barely knew anything about... the cold, dark, determined side, the side that she showed only to those she chose to intimidate, or show that she wasn't a woman to be fucked with. Her platinum eyes were stony, her lips pursed. She glared directly at Solana.

"Alright then, Vakarian." She said, venom filling her tone. "Here's what your boss needs to know." Garrus hummed in a quiet tone that he knew only a turian could hear. His hum spoke of embarrassment, and the strong desire not to be in the same room as these two. Trust his sister to somehow piss Jane off.

* * *

It had worked. Garrus, Solana and Jane were sitting in the shuttle bay of the Normandy, and Jane was modifying her sniper rifle at the weapons bench. Garrus was making sure that the final tweaks to his shielding were complete. Meanwhile, Solana was sitting cross legged on the floor, doing some kind of breathing exercise. Garrus looked up at Jane, pondering her quietly.

What Jane had said next to Solana had been shocking, not because of the logic, but because of how defensive Jane had been. Something had evolved between his sister and his lover, and Garrus had no clue what the hell that was. But they seemed to have a ginger respect for each other. Jane had said simply that the HSS Menae had a vested interest in the mission, due to the potential of a Prothean artifact being on the station. The Prothean artifact, according to the information that Solana had given to the Normandy, was suspected to be a key to reactivating the mass relays. Jane made a deal with the Captain, one that in days past, Garrus would have said was too big of a price to pay. She had promised the artifact to the crew of the HSS Menae, in exchange for taking her ground team down to the moon to investigate the damage to the Alliance personnel. It didn't hurt that Jane presented the theory that the disease inflicting the crew was isolated only to human DNA, giving turians an advantage.

It was only after that the true ruse had been figured out. When the turian captain had agreed to let them down onto the planet, Solana had submitted the true recording. It did say that the artifact was there and that the people did need help, but the artifact had never been described as a Prothean relic. It had been described as an 'object of interest'.

"Why didn't you say this before?" Jane had asked Solana.

"Because, Shepard. A Prothean relic is going to carry far more interest for both parties then an 'object of interest'. I was giving you a tool to use as leverage." Solana had replied with a smoothness that even Garrus was frightened of. Garrus had never had the patience to play the game of bureaucracy. Solana was a master at the game. To her, this kind of modification of the data was only child's play. He had forgotten her hobbies already.

But of course, that hadn't made Jane happy at all. His Jane, the honest and noble, even when it meant her own physical harm. What he had once viewed with frustrated acceptance he now embraced with endearing pride.

The three of them were almost done their preparations, but that was before they heard loud voices from the elevator.

"NO! YOU'RE NOT!" Karin Chakwas' voice yelled from behind the door.

The elevator doors opened, and Garrus jumped.

Joker was standing in the elevator with Dr. Chakwas trying to restrain him gently. He had on his uniform and his customary ball cap, and he also held a pistol in a magnetic holster at his waist. He looked pretty much at the peak of health. The medical attention had done wonders. It seemed to have mended his bones relatively quickly, and if it was any consolation, he actually looked... happier.

"Captain!" Joker called out to Jane. Jane beamed.

"Joker!" Jane left the bench and Joker stood at attention, giving her a salute. "At ease, soldier. Damn it, you scared the shit out of me!"

"I try not to make a habit of it, Shepard." Joker smiled faintly. "But you know me; sometimes I just need the attention."

"Shepard!" Dr. Chakwas stomped forward, furious. "He plans to pilot the shuttle craft to take you down to the spaceport!"

"That true, Joker?" Garrus asked wryly.

"I figure my baby's old enough that I can leave her with a babysitter." Joker said as he motioned to the Normandy. "As far as I know, Richards has done a good job with her... not as good as me, of course, but you need your best pilot after all."

"How did your medical examination go? Are you clear for active duty?" Jane inquired.

"I haven't even had it yet." Joker replied casually.

"Shepard... stop him!" Chakwas protested.

Garrus watched Jane's eyes travel between the two of them, and then she pointed two fingers at Joker's chest. "You drop us off, you get back to a safe distance, and then you come extract when I call. No fancy flyboy bullshit this time. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Shepard..."

"He'll be fine." Jane reassured Chakwas. "It's alright. He's right, we do need him. We'll keep him safe. Is he mostly patched up?"

"Yes."

"Then we need him."

"Very well Captain..." Chakwas murmered. Garrus examined her for a little bit. Chakwas had never been good with letting people out of her infirmary until she was absolutely sure that they were ready. Granted, she usually made those evaluations pretty quickly... what was holding her up with Joker? Was it the worry that she had for Joker's mental stability? His blue orbs slid to Joker, who had a weak smile en fixed upon his face. Something had happened with him. What was it...?

He didn't have much time to ponder it before Joker started to hobble towards the shuttle. It snapped Garrus out of his thoughts and he grabbed his sniper rifle and an assault rifle. He latched the sniper rifle onto the magnetic holster on his back, and held the assault rifle in his hands. Solana on the other hand was latching several grenades to her waist and legs. She completed her get-up with an assault rifle, a shotgun, and a blade that she stuck in a holster in her boot. Jane grabbed her own sniper rifle, latched it to her back, then grabbed a pistol. Then, she threw a pistol at Joker.

"Here Joker! You might need it!" She called as Joker turned to catch it. Joker fumbled but managed to keep a grip.

"Thanks? What the hell am I gonna use this for? Are Collectors gonna invade my ship again?" Joker asked sarcastically. Garrus saw Jane glower.

"Bad joke."

"Yes ma'am."

Garrus laughed, recalling a time almost a year ago when Joker called him Lover-Boy, and smirked. That conversation had gone almost the same as this one... He shook his head and hopped onto the shuttle after Joker, Solana and Jane following close behind.


	4. The Survivor of Franklin

**STORY NOTES**

I forgot to write replies back to the reviews last time! D: Time to fix that.

Kasena (Chap 2): An asari? Really? o.o That would certainly be interesting... Garrus and Solana having different mothers. I might explore that someday.

Verdandi (Chap 2): :D

Scarf (Chap 2): It's okay, you don't have to review every chapter if you don't want to. o.o Thank you for letting me know you're still there though!

Barbex: I thought that Solana should have more personality then the 'sweet, innocent' little sister.

Blausen: YOU'RE LATE. But you're welcome. :D

Guest: Thank you. :D

* * *

The descent to the moon had been a quiet one. Solana and Garrus were sitting side by side, with their backs to Joker, while Jane was sitting closest to the door. Garrus noted that she was frowning at the door handle as if it had offended her, and nodded with realization. She was only afraid of what she'd find on that spaceport. Garrus could certainly understand that. He knew at times like these that she wouldn't want to be bothered that much; she was very turian in that sense. It suited Garrus just fine; although he loved her dearly, he didn't want to smother her.

He turned his attention towards his sister and saw that she had been looking in the same direction as Garrus had. He nudged her with the back of his hand and raised an eye ridge. "What's up?" He asked.

Solana turned her head towards him and tilted her head. Jane had said once that turians resembled Earth birds to her in that respect. Garrus just thought it to be natural. It was a way to show confusion. His mandibles twitched outwards. "I said, what's up?"

"_Nothin'_." Solana replied back. However, the way that she said it was what startled Garrus a bit. Solana was using a dialect of Turian, one that he hadn't heard for quite a long time.. in fact, he hadn't heard it since the last time he went home to Palaven two years ago. In dealing with the Council races, he had learned to speak proper Turian in order to facilitate their translators. He confirmed his suspicions when he saw Jane look at Solana in confusion and he coughed.

"Solana, speak properly." He chided lightly.

"_But I don't wanna let her hear_." Solana replied in the same dialect, as she tilted her head a bit further. "_Big brother, what is she to you_?"

Garrus looked at Jane and tried to make the most human face he could, to try to convey his apologies, and then he spoke back to her. "_My best friend, and more._" Garrus replied simply. There were no words to really describe his and Jane's relationship. They were equals, yet he was her subordinate. They were partners, yet he was more than happy to be her pupil. They were lovers, but they were also co-workers who put the mission before themselves. However, that didn't mean that they wouldn't protect each other on those missions... in fact, it was their jobs to do so, which made it perfect for their backgrounds.

"_You gonna mate her?_"

Garrus kept his eyes on Jane, and by now he knew she could tell that they were talking about her. She was staring at Solana, her stance showing her irritation. He could almost laugh at it, were it not impolite. He kept his eyes on Jane, and watched as Jane felt his gaze, and connected her own eyes with him. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"_I'm not unwilling to, if we can find a way to do so. When we're ready... If she'll agree to it. For right now, I'm happy to let things be as they are, until she's ready for that step._" Garrus replied, and he spoke with a soft rumble. He saw that Jane refused to take her eyes off of him... as if just by his tones, she could understand what he was saying. He was glad for that; Solana was stubborn and not letting her into the conversation, but Garrus wanted Jane to know these things... Maybe it was something he should discuss with her, when they weren't in the heat of a moment.

... Oh like that ever happened. What was he kidding himself?

Solana blinked, and then looked at Jane herself. Then, she reverted back to proper Turian. "I could figure that out for you." She said as she pointed a talon at Jane.

"Excuse me?" Jane replied back in confusion. She seemed to have come out of a daze, and Garrus chuckled underneath his breath. He'd have to tease her about that later. He looked towards Solana, who was about to open her mouth to speak again; Garrus quickly interrupted.

"Sol, I can handle that myself, thanks."

"But brother... you're horrible with talking to women."

Jane looked positively baffled. "P-Pardon me?"

"Solana!" Garrus growled.

"What?! You are!"

"He is." piped Joker from the cockpit.

"Oh like you're any better!" Garrus snarled to the front. He looked at Jane quickly. "Captain, I really think that we should be having a quick mission brief right about now."

"Why do you call her Captain? Why not by her name?" Solana asked.

"Hey, yeah, Garrus. Why DO you call her that?"

"It's a sign of respect for my commanding officer while we're on duty." Garrus replied in annoyance. "Something the two of you seem to know nothing about!"

"Oooh. Hey human, I think we pissed Brother off."

"Name's Joker, partner-in-crime." Joker joked (AN: hurr.) from the cockpit.

"Solana."

"No! Who said you two could plot together?!" Garrus retorted back in a mock panic. Granted, a little bit of that panic was legitimate... Joker and his sister, making friends together. Spirits help them all. His sister had a habit of bringing out the mischief in people, and Joker was a naturally sarcastic person... and if he wasn't bitter, he could be pretty mischievous.

It was at this point that Garrus started to hear laughter from Jane's side of the shuttle. She started out in a soft chuckle, and then it grew as time went by, until even Joker and Solana were silently listening. She seemed to realize that everyone was listening to her by now, and she tried to muffle herself with the back of her hand. She shook her head, trying to wave at them to get them to ignore her, but Garrus wouldn't. He couldn't help himself; he kept a quiet and thoughtful gaze on her, protective and caring in nature. He hadn't seen Jane laugh like this for a very long time... in fact, he couldn't remember the last time. She had always been so serious, or stressed. Life constantly threw bullets at Jane Shepard, and it was nice to see her when she was actually starting to relax... even if it was for a moment.

She collected herself and Garrus was a bit disappointed that the moment was over. However, Jane leaned in with a smile on her face.

"Okay guys. Here's what we need to do."

* * *

Their feet hit the ground as Joker kept the shuttle hovered. The spaceport was a vulnerable position, especially on the landing pad they touched down on, and so Joker was going to pull the shuttle back to a safe difference until they were ready to leave. Garrus glanced around. The spaceport looked like any average spaceport... there was a launch pad for shuttles, and cranes and boxes everywhere. Garrus did however get a chill down his spine. It happened anytime he saw a big space with lots of cover... he had his eyes pinned to the radar in his visor, making sure that there were no hostile contacts in the area. He raised his assault rifle and looked through the scope; no heat signatures were appearing on his scope. At least he could be happy for that.

He glanced over the grey walls warily. There could be any kind of sniper shielded from his sensors... sometimes all of this tech just couldn't beat your own two eyes. Granted, the day that he voiced that opinion out loud would be the day that his eyes would fail him and his tech would save his life, just to spite him. A small part of Garrus did believe that fate had an ironic sense of humour. A small part of him even prayed to the spirits when he needed, and he knew that the spirits were a harsh mistress.

He kept his eyes trained on the corners as well. Those were popular places for gunmen to shoot from. By now, it seemed that his eyes were darting everywhere but in front of him, and yet he was walking around boxes like everyone else in the group. When he hit the ground, he went from the 'gentle intellectual' that Jane had labeled him as to the cold-blooded sniper, the one who didn't trust anyone other than the people he chose to keep at his back. Or... well... front in the case of a sniper, most of the time.

He, Solana and Jane walked to a door on the opposite side of the room. Jane and Garrus kept their guns trained on the assorted corners while Solana opened the door. Garrus glanced quickly at Jane.

"No one's coming to investigate the intruders?"

"Doesn't seem like that so far..." Jane muttered quietly. "I don't like it..." She glanced around. "Not even a single VI. This damn spaceport's a ghost town."

He didn't quite understand the meaning of a 'ghost town' but he got the basic gist. She was stating that the place was empty. He heard Solana open the door and saw Jane immediately go through. Jane was the worst sniper; she always insisted on going first. He saw her place her sniper rifle on her back and raised up her pistol from her hip.

"So. Not feeling weird yet, Shepard?" He heard Solana ask Jane. Jane shook her head.

"No... nothing resembling indoctrination just yet."

"Do you know what signs to watch for?" Solana asked sceptically. He saw Jane shoot her a dirty look.

"I fought Reapers, Solana. I know when I'm being indoctrinated." Jane replied coolly. "And if I don't, I'm sure that Garrus will spot it for me."

Garrus didn't answer. Her words were very true... she did know when she was being indoctrinated. Though he had never told Jane, he had seen what had happened, the night that Jane destroyed the Reapers. At least, he had seen part of it. He had commanded a team that had consisted of Tali, Javik and himself to find her distress signal about a week after the incident, and Javik had shown him as much as he could of what happened to her... including the moment where Jane had shot her mentor, Anderson. It was still a little hard for him to recall that vivid pain... although Anderson had never really spoken to him, it was almost as if he had felt Jane's anguish that night. He couldn't imagine what that had to be like... and he thought of Jane as a mentor. He couldn't imagine being forced to shoot her.

Granted... he also thought of Jane as more then a mentor.

The three of them walked down a narrow hallway, which made Garrus incredibly nervous. He holstered his sniper rifle and pulled out his assault rifle. There was no cover, other then the doorways of the different rooms. It was a narrow, brightly lit hallway, with almost zero space to manoeuvre. This was the best place to spring a trap. He kept himself walking backwards as they walked past the first two doors. He was ready to shoot at the smallest sign of movement.

"Jane, this isn't the best place." He rumbled quietly.

"I know, I know... it'd be nice if we could at least find some signs of life." Jane muttered. She seemed to be just as nervous as he was. It was at that point that Solana stopped and jabbed her thumb at the door beside her.

"I propose we split up. I'll check through here. You two, pick a door each and we'll see what we find."

Garrus doubled back to one of the first two doors, and Jane followed, picking the door on the opposite side. He aimed his rifle at the door, and opened it up. His flashlight automatically flickered on, which signaled to him that the room was dark. He searched around the room, which seemed to be a small storage space for shuttle parts, looking for any sign of life... then any sign of death. He then raised his hand to his comm piece.

"Clear."

"Clear." Jane called from behind him. Garrus turned around and glanced at the other doors.

"What was your room?"

"A storage closet."

"Same. Do you think these rooms will pretty much be the same?"

"I'll bet." Jane replied wearily. "Who knows; we might be able to find a tradesman or something." She bit her lip with her dulled human teeth and Garrus shook his head. She didn't believe her own words. That much he knew from her motions. He walked down the hallway and heard Solana's comm in his ear.

"_Clear."_

The three of them advanced up the hallway in this fashion until the very end of the hallway, where they found a T-shaped fork. Garrus looked to the center of the fork, where there was a door in front of them; then a door to the left, and a door to the right.

"Well... I've got center then."

"Left." Solana called.

"Right." Jane murmered.

The three of them opened their doors, and Garrus blinked in surprise.

This was a far larger room, one that seemed out of place. It was a small research lab, except it seemed majorly in disarray. Boxes and shelves were scattered all around the place, along with broken glass from windowpanes. The room was dark, with only a pulsing blue light resonating from the far left corner of the room.

He heard Jane and Solana call their rooms as clear, but Garrus didn't respond. He kept walking towards the light, stepping over boxes as if they were obstacles set in his path. He took cover behind a box nearby, and peered around the edge.

He was baffled by what he saw. Several humans; at least five of them, were around a black and cerulean orb. It was floating in the centre of the space, but what was most startling was that four of the humans, all adult males, were laying limp around it. Their limbs were contorted in such a way that didn't seem natural for sleeping humans, and Garrus' scanners were showing no vital signs. The fifth was the biggest mystery, however.

It was a boy. He seemed to be no older then eight, but Garrus was making that approximation based off of turian lifespans. He could have easily been younger or even older for all that Garrus knew. The boy had a messy mop of shoulder-length black hair, that seemed incredibly curly; Garrus had never seen a human's hair that curly, or wiry. He had darkened skin, skin that looked very similar to Jacob Taylor's skintone, and bright brown eyes that were staring directly at Garrus. He was gangly, and he looked as if he hadn't eaten in quite a while, his plain brown cloth garments hanging off of his bones. Garrus crept from hiding and tried to be as gentle as he could.

"Hey, little guy." He rumbled softly, and the boy seemed to barely give a response. The boy's eyes simply blinked. Garrus lowered his rifle, making sure to keep it pointed away from the boy, and he held out his left hand.

"Can you understand me? It's okay... I won't bite." Garrus honestly didn't know what to do with kids, so he was treating this situation as if this child were his own little sister. He tried to be as gentle as he possibly could. But the boy again, didn't respond. He just blinked again. Garrus frowned.

"C'mon..." He glanced towards the boy's arms. In most Citadel cultures, an omni-tool was given to a child as soon as they were old enough to converse, or at least understand speech. This boy seemed to have misplaced his, however; there were no indications of omni-chips on his arms. This was something Garrus found odd. He raised his hand to his comm device.

"Jane, Solana, you may want to get in here. I found someone... a child."

"A what?" Jane's voice crackled through his earpiece. He heard the doors on the other side of the room open and their footsteps entered the space.

The echo seemed to have alerted the boy, for he shot his head up in the direction of the sound. Then he backed away, and shielded the orb in front of him with his body. He held his arms out and spread his legs so that he resembled a human star. Then, the scrawny boy started to speak.

It was not the speech of a human. It had subharmonics that not even Garrus' ears could truly comprehend nor his voice could replicate. There were a mix of voices... men and women, and two voice that came out most clearly. A high pitched voice, cracking, and a low baritone of a voice.

"**THE DARKNESS MUST NOT BE BREACHED.**"

"Garrus!" Jane's voice called in panic.

The orb behind the boy started to spark with the same cerulean energy that inhabited its depths, menacing and deadly in nature. Oddly enough, Garrus wasn't thinking immediately about that danger and getting away from it. He was only thinking of the boy shielding it. He reached out and grabbed his tiny wrist in his giant hands, wrapping his wrist in an unbreakable grip. The boy yelled out in outrage, the same voice yelling with him. He thought he heard Solana and Jane round the corner, but he wasn't sure. He just acted.

He yanked the small boy to him, away from the orb. Cerulean lightning arced between the boy and the artifact, and he heard the boy's eerie voice in his ear.

"**WHY DO YOUR PEOPLE FOLLOW US?**"

"JANE! SHOOT THE ORB!" Garrus yelled out. He wrapped his arms around the boy, shielding him with his armored body.

He felt the heat of a grenade behind his head, and an excruciating pain on his fringe. He saw his shields go dangerously low as shards of the orb deflected off of his body. He tilted his head in the direction of his teammates and saw his sister holding a pin in her hand and a furious look in her eye.

He didn't have any time to thank his sister for the save before the little boy in his arms fell limp. He looked down at the boy, a panic flooding his entire body. For all the times that he had fought against humans and beside humans, he had never seen one of their offspring... and the first time that he might, the offspring was potentially dead?

"Jane. Jane!"

He felt Jane beside him, scanning the small boy with her omni-tool. After a minute, Jane let out a breath. "He's alive, Garrus. He'll be alright, but we need to get him to the med bay."

"Can't say the same for these humans." Solana's grim voice sounded from behind him.

He felt Jane stand up beside him. "Alright. We're pulling back. We're going to get this little boy some attention; figure out what the hell happened to him." She raised her hand to her comm piece. "Chakwas, I need a quarantine set up in the med bay, immediately. We're bringing a potentially contagious victim on board. James, Gabby, I need you two on the ground; you'll be doing a full scan of this place. I want video footage, audio feed, everything that you can get. We also need to make sure there aren't more artifacts like this one. Solana will be accompanying you. Joker, get back to our destination for evac, now. Garrus-"

"Don't need to tell me, Jane." He said quietly as he stood up, the little boy hanging like a doll in his arms.

* * *

When the four of them had arrived back on the ship, Chakwas had immediately committed all four of them to her medical ward. Only after Jane had explained to her that only Garrus and the boy had any kind of interaction with the orb was Solana and Jane allowed to go. Garrus spent a lot of his time confirming the suspicions that the orb had been the thing to infect the humans, and as soon as it had been destroyed, the boy had stopped acting possessed. None the less, it still took Chakwas quite a while to check them both; she was too busy trying to keep the boy alive. The boy had suffered a minor heart attack, Chakwas had told them; something had strained his body, most likely the artifact. He'd make a full recovery, she assured, but she also was concerned about his mental faculties.

Garrus had been in quarantine for a couple of hours when Jane had come down to visit the med bay. She had her own duties to attend to, and now his as well, now that her right hand man was in quarantine. Yet when she entered the med bay, she certainly didn't look like a woman who was ready to focus on business. She walked to the end of the room where the two of them and Chakwas were. Chakwas was bent over the boy's unconscious form, doing whatever it was that she did as a doctor to humans; Garrus had no idea. There was a blue field around both of their beds, protecting the outside air from any contaminants. To be honest, Garrus thought that he'd be fine to walk around, but until Chakwas figured out what happened, she wouldn't hear a word of it.

Jane stopped at a bed beside the containment field, and then she sat down on it. She kept her eyes on Garrus the entire time. Garrus saw a neutral look on her face, but he knew what that meant; she was worried. His mandibles twitched outwards and he gave a nod.

"Jane, need me for something?" Garrus asked. It was a play on words; he used to always ask her if she needed him for something, but he'd call her Shepard. He still called her Shepard in public, but right now he felt that she needed a little more familiarity. He was satisfied to know that he was right; the corner of Jane's mouth curled upwards and her eyes softened.

"Well, yeah, I do, but you're kind of on the other side of a field." Jane motioned to the blue hexagons in front of them and Garrus shook his head, a little grin on his face. He never knew with Jane exactly what she meant, but it was always amusing to figure out what... he'd have to later. He tilted his head and the two of them just looked at each other for a moment, until finally he started to speak again.

"It's looking as if the boy will make a full physical recovery. His brainwaves also seem to function within normal human parameters." Garrus saw Jane raise an eyebrow and he raised his hands. "I'm just saying what Chakwas said. She's unsure about what his mental faculties will be when he wakes up, however."

"Understandable." Jane replied. Her brow was furrowed as she seemed to process the information. Garrus sighed quietly. He glanced over his shoulder at the boy behind him, but his view was instead blocked by Chakwas' suit. She now had the helmet off, which made Garrus stare up at her.

"Um... Chakwas... quarantine?"

"I cannot find anything physically wrong with him. I think the quarantine is unnecessary. Whatever was driving those people mad, it wasn't anything that can be spread. You're free to go." Chakwas replied. She was typing a code into her omni-tool, and the barrier faded. Garrus hopped off the bed and Jane came to stand beside him. Chakwas went back to busily working on the boy and Jane looked at Garrus.

"Y'know... I think I've found another hole in your armor." Jane said quietly. She had a bit of a mischievous tone in her voice, and Garrus picked up on it immediately. He glanced down at the short human and raised an eyeridge.

"I'm sorry. Another?"

"Yeah. I mean... your psychological armor."

"Oh?"

"Well, the first is women hitting on you."

Garrus shook his head. "Oh yeah. Like you would react differently if a turian were hitting on you." He remembered how nervous Jane had made him, how she made him feel like a fool when they were first arranging to... blow off steam. He closed his eyes. "I don't act that way around most women."

"Ahuh. I'm flattered." Jane replied dryly. She smiled. "You also have a soft spot for kids."

Garrus blinked, and he thought about it for a moment. Yeah... he supposed he did. He stayed silent for a little bit, thinking. What had prompted that kind of panic in him when he held that child in his arms? Garrus looked up at the wall and then looked to Jane.

"I.. guess so. I just... tried to treat him like I would Solana when she was young..." Garrus looked a bit confused. "I thought I implied before I wasn't adverse to the idea of kids?"

Jane looked confused for a moment, and then she suddenly laughed. Garrus knew what she was remembering. Right before they had done the final mission to get to the Catalyst, so they could destroy the Reapers, Garrus had suggested they should figure out what a turian-human baby looked like. Although it had been a joke, Garrus was definitely interested in having kids someday... even if they did have to adopt. He felt Jane pat his mandible gently, and he hummed happily.

"No, I guess you're not." Jane commented softly. She watched Chakwas for a moment, and Garrus felt an arm slip around him. He laid his own arm over her shoulders and the two of them stood there for a while, watching the sleeping boy. Garrus was somewhat surprised at the attention, but he wasn't exactly saying no to it. They were a rather private couple, rarely did they ever have a moment for themselves, and rarely did Jane ever drop the act of being the captain. None the less, she had gone from captain to woman in the short space of time, and Garrus was enjoying it. He brushed her shoulder with his thumb and felt Jane squeeze him gently.

"I was worried about you for a moment down there." She said quietly.

Garrus looked down at the fiery red head and laughed, a little hum escaping through his nose. "Were you now?"

"Yeah. It's not often you get caught in a situation like that. I had no idea what that artifact would do to you, or what the boy would do to you."

Garrus smirked and laid his forehead on hers for a moment. He felt her relax from the touch. Then, he dragged his forehead away and stared into her platinum eyes.

"Now you know how I feel."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh c'mon Jane. When we fought Saren, instead of getting behind cover and shooting him down with your sniper, you decided to get out your pistol, stand away from any kind of cover, and start shooting in his general direction."

Jane huffed. "He was moving too quickly for a good shot with the scope."

"I also seem to remember a certain crazy red head not giving a damn, shooting down a gunship with a missile launcher and zero cover after an old friend of hers got hurt."

"Yet you don't remember that you were laying with your face getting painted blue by your own blood. I needed to get that gunship down before you died, or lost that scarred mandible you're so fond of." Jane replied dismissively.

"Was that the same theory when you dove down a platform to grab my hand after that Proto-Reaper nearly knocked me off?"

"You're complaining?"

"It was reckless."

"That's hardly fair!" Jane protested. "You would've definitely died if I hadn't done that!"

"Just saying, Jane." Garrus replied quietly in her ear, his mandibles caressing the base of her neck. "Now you know how I feel every time you're about to dive headlong into a firefight."

There was a long pause from the woman, and Garrus noted that she had her eyes closed. She was trying to keep up her stance of indignation, but she was doing a terrible job of it; her eyebrow was twitching, and her lips kept on curling upwards. And then downwards. And then upwards again. She had her arms crossed by now, and Garrus could tell she was trying not to laugh.

"Alright, alright. I get it. I'm a regular Evel Knievil."

"A what?"

"It's a famous human daredevil. He died back in the early 21st century. He was known for stunt riding, mostly over several cars and even canyons, and he broke over 400 bones during his career."

"... sounds like a good description for you. Did he ever die in an explosion and come back to life?" Garrus placed extra emphasis on 'he', and got exactly the reaction he wanted; Jane screwed up her face in protest.

"Now, that DEFINITELY wasn't my fault." Jane retorted indignantly.

"I don't know Jane. If you hadn't drawn so much attention to yourself... arranging to blow up Sovereign... The Collectors might not have had to come take you out." Garrus teased.

"Yeah, well, deal with it. You're dating a daredevil zombie, okay?"

"... zonbye?" Garrus asked in confusion again. He tried to replicate how the word sounded in Jane's tongue, but he couldn't quite get it right with his subharmonics. Jane laughed and turned off her translator for a second, then pointed at her lips.

"Zahm-biie." She articulated.

A small voice replied back in a jumble of speech that Garrus couldn't understand, but Jane's look of recognition told him that she could. The speech was very flowing, with an emphasis on the "ah" sound and a few other sounds. Garrus was confused. The voice was higher in pitch, yet cracked slightly on some notes... in the same way that the boy's voice had sounded when mixed with the other voices. He looked quickly at the boy.

The boy had awoken. Chakwas seemed to be in as much shock as the other two were. Bright amber eyes were staring at Garrus, blinking every once in a while. The boy still rested his head on the pillow on his bed, and made no other effort to move, other than his eyes. Garrus smiled a bit, and waved. The boy still blinked at him. Garrus saw Jane turn back on her translator and grin.

"Hey there little man. You feeling better?" Jane asked the boy. The boy slid his eyes towards Jane and blinked again. Then, his head gave the tiniest of nods. Garrus chuckled.

"Well, that's a good thing. You gave us a scare there."

When he saw the boy's look of confusion, Garrus blinked. That confirmed it. He couldn't understand the boy, and the boy couldn't understand him. He looked at Jane, and pointed at the boy.

"I think my translator's broken, what is-"

That was when he recalled it. The boy had no omni-tool. He had no way to translate his speech for the other omni-tools around him. The only ones who could understand him had to know the language... and apparently, Jane spoke the same language. Chakwas seemed to as well. He looked at the boy, and then back to Jane.

"He's speaking human, isn't he?"

Jane chuckled. "It's called English." He tried to comprehend how to say that word in his head, but he honestly didn't think he could move his mouth the same way she did to make that word. So that was the name of the human language. He frowned.

"Do all humans speak it?"

"A fair few. It's my native tongue, and the serving language of the Systems Alliance." She replied. Then she looked back to the boy. "Where did your omni-tool go, bud?"

The boy said more words, a weak tone in his voice, and Jane translated. "He says that he doesn't know. He doesn't even remember coming on the ship. He's also asking why there's a turian in an Alliance spaceport... Hmm." Jane paused for a moment and spoke to the boy. "You're not on the spaceport anymore... you're on a ship near the spaceport. Can you remember what happened?"

The boy paused for a little bit, his face screwed up. Garrus felt alarm when he saw water streaming from the corner of his eye, although he stayed completely silent. "Is... he okay?" Garrus asked shakily, pointing towards the tears. Turians didn't cry unless something was in their eyes, or something was wrong with their eyes... He saw Jane nod her head and wave him off dismissively.

"It's okay, it's okay... we can talk when you feel better, okay? What's your name?"

The boy said one word, and Garrus assumed it to be his name. "Jonathan." The boy had said.

"Can we call you Jon? My turian friend here will have an easier time saying that until we can get you an omni-tool."

The boy nodded quietly and Garrus watched the boy staring at him. He waved again, and the boy tried to smile. "Hello." Garrus said to him. The boy blinked and then said more words to Jane. Jane laughed.

"He says you talk funny." Jane said with a wry smile. "How does he talk funny, Jon?"

Jon spoke again, and Jane translated, "Jon says that your voice sounds like a couple of voices trying to talk at once."

Garrus laughed. "He's probably talking about my subharmonics. We communicate deeper meaning through them... kind of like human facial expressions."

Jane translated Garrus' explanation and the boy gave a long sound, an "Ohhhhh" sound. Jane smiled and turned to Garrus. "He understands now." She tilted her head and stared at Garrus. "Let's let Chakwas fix him up while we wait for James to report back, hmm?"

"Yes. See if we can get him an omni-tool as well, even if it's a used one. Your language is interesting, Jane, but I don't think I could make half the sounds you can." Garrus spotted Jon staring at him in amazement and laughed. "And I don't think he can make half of my sounds, judging by the look on his face."

"Just another thing to discover about the other races." Jane commented. "Okay. Hey, Jon, we're going to take off for now. Dr. Chakwas is just going to make sure that you're okay. We'll come back later, okay?"

Jon nodded a small nod and Jane and Garrus walked out of the med bay. Garrus felt Jane wind an arm around his, and Garrus stopped to look at her. The look on her face was a look that he didn't get to see often enough; she was looking at him with pride and love in her eyes. Garrus felt his heart flutter a little and he tilted his head.

"Hmm?" He hummed to her.

"Oh... nothing. You just surprise me sometimes, that's all."

Garrus felt Jane let go of his arm and he shook his head in confusion. He stood and watched her retreating form walk away, wondering if this was a good time to sneak back to the main battery. But, it seemed that she had other plans for him. She turned her head to him and raised an eyebrow.

"Don't even think about sneaking off. We've got to go figure out how we're getting to Despoina."

Garrus looked baffled. How did she know... and what was this about Despoina? He walked briskly to her side and tilted his head curiously.

"Despoina?"

"Yep. I'm going to figure out the origin of this whole mess here on Franklin... and figure out what the hell that voice was. You in?"

Garrus looked around at the hull walls around him and stared at Jane. "Even if I wasn't willing... where the hell can I go?"

"True. We ARE missing in action... might as well make the best of our situation." Jane replied.

"... You know, Jane, normally my way of making the best of the situation is either to do calibrations or... well, at the very least something that doesn't put me into danger about twice a day."

Jane raised an eyebrow and glared playfully at him. "Don't even start, Vakarian."

"Yes ma'am." Garrus mockingly saluted.

* * *

**CHAPTER NOTES**

I decided to try introducing a character that's been in my head for quite some time. Say hi to Jon.

I also decided to try playing with the different racial aspects a bit. We'll see how and where this goes.


	5. Harsh Memories

**STORY NOTES**

Kasena: "N-Noo Solana!" Wait. Wat. -goes back to read chapter four again-

Blausen: I will try to keep the creepy! -salute-

Guest: Oh. Honey. There's more of that teasing where that came from.

* * *

When Joker had returned with James, Gabby and Solana in tow, the news hadn't been good. The artifact at the spaceport had been the one and only. According to records from the central computer system, the artifact was set to be transported to Citadel space for further examination and instructions almost a year before, before the staff of the spaceport had been driven insane. Camera footage showed different reactions to the artifact; some people went practically comatose, others into a state of lethargy... and some became increasingly violent. It seemed to have a different effect based upon the psychological profile of each person that came into contact with it. Either way, the entire shipyard had been disabled in this manner, no communications were answered nor sent from Franklin, and the reports in the beginning brought up the question of whether or not the Reapers were involved. But that had already been debunked by Jane the minute that they brought that information to the conference table.

"The Reapers were destroyed nearly a year ago. How the hell would the personnel still have the indoctrination effects on them?" Jane asked warily.

The group gathered around the table was an odd one. Captain Rolten had come over to the Normandy finally; he was an elderly turian, with a face almost as scarred as Garrus'. He had a darkened brown tone with burgundy clan markings over his eyes in a vertical stripe, stretching down to his mandibles. That was where the markings became unclear; both mandibles had been so scarred that Garrus couldn't even imagine what had happened to make them that way. The only way he could picture having those kinds of scars would be if the gunship on Omega had shot him twice, once on each side of his face. There was no way this captain had that. He also wore burgundy armor that matched the colour of his markings. Garrus wasn't surprised by that though. That was why he wore blue armor himself.

Beside him on his right hand side was Solana, as was expected of his XO, and on her right hand side rested Joker. Beside him was Gabby, followed by Jane at the end of the table, Garrus beside Jane, and finally James on his right hand side. James kept a seat between him and who he now called "Scarface". That had rankled Garrus a bit, since his nickname was Scars. He had accused James of being unoriginal, but James had shrugged and tried to say that Scarface was more of an insult than Scars. Which had made Garrus question the nicknames entirely; was it just James' way of mocking people?

Captain Rolten clasped his fingers together (all six of them) and stared at Jane from across the table. "Captain Shepard... I recognize that you have more... first-hand experience with the Reapers than almost everyone in the galaxy... but let's be reasonable here. We still don't know much of anything. We didn't know much of anything about that Crucible that your asari scientist found the plans for either. We don't know whether the Crucible had a range or not. There's a small possibility that a Reaper could still exist-"

"They don't." Jane replied darkly.

Garrus had never seen Jane so angry in his life. It was as if a cyclone had clouded her face. In the two seconds that Rolten had spoken his last sentence, Jane's face had gone from pleasant and neutral to violent and dangerous. It was just another mark of the kind of trauma that Jane had gone through when she destroyed the Reapers. Garrus always had the impression that Jane knew more about what happened that day then even she let on. The way that she said the Reapers were dead, with such conviction... it was a clear giveaway. Garrus wanted to reach out a hand to her, but he wouldn't break ranking like that. Instead, he leaned over and coughed once.

"Captain... Captains, rather. Let's be reasonable here." Garrus replied quietly. His electric eyes shot up to Jane, and Jane took a breath, letting her shoulders hunch a little bit. Meanwhile, Rolten looked like his feathers had been ruffled a little too hard. Solana was quietly massaging her temples with her finger and thumb. Garrus glanced at them both and continued.

"The Reapers were creations based upon the DNA of the races that they harvested. It could very well be that remnants of a race that the Reapers harvested could still exist, and that could be where they got their method of indoctrination from."

"The Reapers were very thorough with their harvests." Rolten replied calmly.

"Actually, they weren't." Garrus quickly countered. He could see the growing look of anger on Jane's face again. "In 2183, we found a facility on Ilos that housed cyro-pods with Protheans inside; literally thousands, enough to restart a race. In fact, the only thing that killed the Protheans in that facility was their own caution; they wanted all traces of the Reapers gone before they emerged from stasis, and they waited too long. Otherwise, the Protheans probably would have survived. There were also other accounts of Protheans surviving; the Normandy crew found and worked with one of them in 2186. He was instrumental in the end of the Reaper War. Without his aide, Captain Shepard would have probably never made it to the beam in time to transport to the Crucible."

Jane's eyes glanced over Garrus. He could see it out of the corner of his eye. But he refused to look; instead he kept his gaze on Captain Rolten, who seemed to be examining Garrus carefully. Garrus kept barrelling through his monologue. "Also... if they were thorough, then they did a bad job with our cycle. We're still alive, aren't we?"

Rolten sighed calmly, and his gaze went up to Jane. "Captain, you are absolutely sure that the Reapers are non-existant."

"The Reapers had a master. I confronted that master, and it was destroyed."

Garrus' body became numb with shock. That was a piece of information that he had never been told. His eyes trailed up to Jane, who was stiff and rigid. She looked as if each word she had spoken was painful. Garrus' eyes ran over her form. He only knew what happened in the encounter between the Illusive Man, Anderson and herself... he had only seen her go up on the platform into the ceiling of the Citadel. What had happened at the top of the Citadel to her? A master?

Rolten crossed his arms. "That's information that I'm sure the Council would have liked to know."

"The information is information that until this day, only the Council knew. They did not disclose it on my request, and my prompting that it was unimportant information. I told no others..." Jane's eyes slid down to Garrus'. There was an apology in those platinum orbs. "Not even my crew."

"Well then... I'll be sure to keep it from leaving this room by my mouth." Rolten replied. "I'm curious about it, but I'll take your word for it, Captain. Now... Officer Vakarian, your theory on it being a previous race. Was that founded upon any scientific proof?"

"No." Garrus shook his head. He kept his gaze upon Jane for another moment, before he managed to wrench his eyes away to look at Rolten. "Just a gut feeling... a guess even."

"That's hardly something to go off of." Rolten chided. Garrus felt a minor annoyance buzzing in his brain... Rolten was rubbing him the wrong way. It was like trying to get past C-Sec red tape. While Garrus' patience had improved drastically over the last four years, he still couldn't stand when authorities pointlessly obstructed him from his goals. Why the hell should he even feel obligated to this guy?

Then, he realized why. It wasn't the turian captain that he was justifying his actions to. It was his underling, Garrus' sister. He glanced up at Solana's face. Solana was keeping a passive look on her face, one that didn't betray any thoughts that she may have in her head. His mandibles twitched in annoyance, pressing to his face, and she spotted it. She tilted her head in question, and Garrus' eyes narrowed. He was trying to communicate through facial expression alone that he could really use her in the conversation. He was starting to get discouraged; was she understanding what he was trying to tell her?

"Captain Rolten, aren't all hypothesis based off of a theory... a gut feeling?" Solana asked Rolten inquisitively. Garrus could've grinned. Good girl. "If it IS a race that did have the indoctrination methods, one that was hunted by the Reapers... if the race is somehow still alive, or perhaps an evolved form of the race, doesn't that present a threat to galactic security?"

Yes! Yes Solana! Garrus could hug her.

"Irregardless, anything that may be tapping into the same methods as the Reapers is something that can be considered a threat. It's within our interests, and the interest of our human allies, to investigate what the Franklin team found on 2181 Despoina." Solana's eyes slid over to Rolten. "Don't you think?"

Garrus was amazed. Within a few seconds, Solana had wrapped her words around Rolten's mind like a blanket. She would've made a damn good politician. Garrus and Jane could never measure up, no matter how charismatic Jane may have been. People loved Jane as a person, and Jane may have had a talent for leadership, but Solana could only be defined as an advisor... and a damn good one at that. The perfect XO. Unlike Garrus, who was better at providing support and being a faithful watchdog.

The old turian thought for a moment, and then he nodded. "I suppose you're right." Garrus got the impression that Rolten was a traditional and stubborn turian... the ones that you saw vids about. The old turians who croaked about how they remembered the war with those damn humans, maybe even scoffed about how they allowed the poor fleshy pyjaks to win. However, when he was presented with logic and reason, he warmed up to it.

Rolten leaned on the table. "However, it is a shame that you lost that artifact."

"You didn't want that artifact. I'm not entirely convinced that it was an incident isolated to humans, anymore. Well..." Jane paused for a moment. "At least, I wouldn't take that chance with my crew. I think it has to do with the amount of exposure, not the biological structure. Our team managed to retrieve one of the victims... a human child." Jane clasped her hands and stared at the turian across the table, while the turian stared at her.

"Then I think we both agree that the child should stay on your ship." Rolten replied. "Have you gotten any answers from it?"

Garrus felt a bit miffed. A low growl escaped from his throat, though it was hardly audible. "Rolten, he's a kid. We have to treat this carefully, otherwise he's going to be screwed up for the rest of his life."

"No, Vakarian, what you need are those answers." Rolten replied calmly. "If your crew can't get it, my specialists will be happy to do so-"

"Well then, it's a good thing that you can't speak to the boy. He has no translator. We'll get those answers, Captain, when he is ready to talk to us." Jane replied. "For now, the plans of the SSV Normandy is to go to 2181 Despoina." She looked at Solana. "We're happy to have your assistance on Franklin. You're a very capable technical specialist, Solana, and you saved Garrus' life as well as the child's."

Solana's mandibles quivered. "He's my brother, Commander Shepard. Father always taught us that family came before anything else."

Solana must have known what kind of effect those words would have on Garrus. He visibly winced. He didn't know if she said that deliberately or not... but he hadn't been the best about tending to his family for the last few years. Ever since Jane had swept him away from the dull frustration of C-Sec, and brought him aboard the original Normandy, Garrus hadn't been able to tell his family anything about his whereabouts, and hadn't been able to visit them. Granted, he probably could have... the crew of the Normandy disbanded and rejoined quite a bit over the last few years. But Garrus had spent so much time centred on his own life, he had forgotten what it was to protect family.

Garrus kept his eyes on the table as the talk continued, as the turian captain replied that they would continue to proceed to the Far Rim as previously discussed. Garrus should've known that he wouldn't have much time left with his sister... and quite frankly, it had been so many years, he wasn't sure how he fit into his family anymore.

* * *

Some of the crew of the Normandy had taken shifts to stay with Jon, talk to him, and make sure that he was okay. Mostly it had fallen to Joker, James and Samantha Traynor to keep an eye on him. Garrus knew that Jane wanted to, but she was pouring herself over her datapads, mostly trying to come up with a plan to eventually get home. So, on the way back to the main battery, Garrus decided to check in on the boy.

Joker was with him today. Him and Richards seemed to have a good arrangement; while Joker was healing up, Richards got to fly the ship. But the minute that the ship was in emergency mode, Joker got his cockpit back. There was a pot for betting on how long it took Joker to get back into his seat; Garrus was betting half a day.

Garrus walked into the med bay and over to Jon's Corner, as the bed had been dubbed. He was surprised at Jon's progress; the boy was sitting up in bed while Joker talked with him, and he was either nodding or smiling constantly. Garrus' mandibles twitched and Jon looked up.

"Garrus!" Jon exclaimed as he pointed at the turian. Garrus froze in place, while Joker turned to look at Garrus. Garrus raised his hand and gave a shy little wave, while Joker nodded.

"Hey Garrus. I was just talking with Jon."

"No, that's fine, keep doing that." Garrus looked Jon in the eyes, yet spoke to Joker. "Does he have an omni-tool yet?"

"Not yet. Sorry Garrus."

Garrus' mandibles flattened with disappointment. He had quite a few things different about him then the rest of the human crew, but it had never really bothered him until now. Sure, his food was different, the beds were uncomfortable for turian physiology, and he was now the only alien on the ship, let alone turian. But never had he been unable to speak before. It was mildly disconcerting.

"Hey... I'm sure we'll find something for him."

"Yeah, I guess." Garrus grunted.

Jon ended up saying some words to Joker and Joker looked at Garrus. "Stop frowning Garrus, you're scaring the kid."

Garrus' mandibles fell slack from his face. "Am I really?" He asked in surprise.

"Yeah. He's worried about you. Says you frown too much." Joker grinned a little. "I'd tell him that's just normal, but-"

"Hey wait... that's not normal." Garrus frowned again. "I don't frown a lot."

"Bull." Joker replied lightly. Garrus narrowed his eyes.

"Joker, count yourself lucky that you're a cripple."

"I'm touched." Joker quipped. He leaned back in the chair that he was resting in and looked at Jon, who was looking at them both with a raised eyebrow. Joker laughed. "Don't worry about it. He was just threatening to hit me." Jon looked shocked, and Garrus felt ashamed. He glared at Joker.

"I never said that!" Garrus snapped.

"You were thinkin' it." Joker replied, which got a little laugh out of Jon. Garrus was surprised by it. He glanced at Joker and blinked.

"Does he... know what I said?"

"No, but he's a real smart kid. You'd like talking to him, Garrus. Really picks up on things fast."

Garrus looked Jon in the eye, and saw Jon's amber-hued eyes staring right back. "How old is he, Joker?" Garrus asked. Joker repeated the question to Jon. But, instead of Jon replying back verbally, he looked at Garrus and held up nine fingers.

"... Nine years old?"

A confirmation from Joker. A nod from Jon.

Garrus pulled up a chair beside Jon's bed, not taking his eyes off Jon. He tried to look as friendly as he could. "Jon."

"Garrus?" Jon replied back, this time with a question in his tone.

"How did you get on that station?"

Joker repeated the question, and Garrus saw Jon grow rigid. He held out a hand to Jon's arm, and his mandibles twitched outwards. "It's okay... you can tell Joker and I, Jon. You won't have to tell anyone else if you don't want to... but Jane... you remember Jane?"

After Joker translated, Jon nodded. Garrus continued on. "Jane needs to know, Jon. I came here to ask, because Jane's busy right now. You'll only have to tell me once... I promise I'll remember."

Jon took a breath and then started speaking. Joker translated, but instead of saying that Jon was speaking, Joker chose to translate what he said directly. It took a couple of starts, as Jon was distracted by Joker speaking at the same time that he was, but eventually they got it down. "I'm a spacer kid. My dad's in the marines. Our ship was fighting Reapers out here. We've been here ever since they died. Dad wanted to stay at Franklin."

Garrus sighed quietly. "Was your dad at Franklin with the others, Jon?"

Jon spoke, and Joker looked alarmed, but shakily continued. "Yes. He was one of the first to die."

Garrus was alarmed. Jon spoke about it so calmly, so collectedly, yet his eyes looked haunted. A nine year old, who already was battle-hardened. Not even Garrus could speak of the death of a family member or friend so calmly... he couldn't imagine what kind of horror it took to make a young boy's resolve be that hardened. "Where's your mother, Jon?"

"The Reapers got her. She was stationed on Luna Base." Jon said it with incredible calm, but Joker's voice was getting shaky. Apparently Joker was as freaked out by this kid's predicament as he was. Garrus wanted to ask so many questions of Jon. What happened to his father? His mother? Did he have any other family? Then, Garrus realized... these questions wouldn't really serve a purpose. They were stranded out in the Terminus Systems, with no way of getting Jon home to any of his extended family, and to have the kid dwell in the past was stupid and pointless. Garrus looked down at his hands for a moment, and then looked back up at Jon.

"Jon... I need you to tell me... Do you know what that object was? The one I found you beside? Do you remember?"

Jon tilted his head curiously and Joker translated. "What? I don't know..." Jon paused, and so did Joker. "What happened?"

The boy didn't remember. Garrus rubbed the back of his own neck, coughing quietly. "I found you in one of the labs. You were beside an object, an orb that was... I think possessing the dockworkers. It... got you, Jon. You were talking to me, but it wasn't you. It was something else."

Jon looked disturbed. He said something, and Garrus could hear the panic in his voice. But Joker quickly soothed him without translating. "No, we don't think it's there anymore. You're okay. The object was destroyed. You'll be okay now." He reassured Jon, and then he glanced at Garrus. Garrus raised his hand; he didn't need a translation, Joker's response was enough. Jon must have thought that the voice was still there. He smiled at the boy reassuringly, and Jon seemed to grasp his meaning. Jon smiled a small smile back.

"Now, we're going to stop talking about that. How are you feeling?"

Jon replied, and Joker grinned. "He says he wants out of the bed."

Garrus laughed a little rumbling laugh, and Jon looked curious about it. Garrus nodded, raised one finger, and then looked to Chakwas, who was writing some records at her desk. "Doctor, is it alright for me to take Jon for a tour? He's getting restless, will a walk do him some good?"

"Perhaps." Chakwas mused as she tapped at the datapad in front of her. "In fact, it might be better for you to do it then most on the ship... you can carry him back if he gets too tired. Don't strain him, and don't go far." Chakwas warned. Garrus nodded and looked at Joker.

"Are you good to tag along?"

"I... really should get back up to the cockpit." Joker said apologetically. "Do you need me, or...?"

Garrus looked at Jon for a moment and shook his head. "No, I don't think so, as long as Jon's okay with it."

Joker quickly asked Jon, and Jon gave a nod. The boy started to crawl out of bed. The boy was short, even for his age, so the clothes he had been given to wear were a little baggy. His feet started to get tangled in them. Garrus chuckled and helped him get untangled, then looked at Joker.

"You may want to tell him that if he rolled up his pant legs, he'd have an easier time."

Joker translated and the boy's face lit up. "Oh ya!" Jon exclaimed. Garrus knew what that one meant, and he grinned. Jon rolled up his pant legs messily, and Garrus shook his head. It would have to do. He motioned Jon to take Garrus' arm, to which he eagerly obliged. Then, the small boy and the turian started to walk slowly from the bed, while Joker watched them both. What Garrus didn't see was Joker smile, shake his head, and look up at the ceiling.

* * *

That day had been a new experience for both Garrus and Jon. Garrus hadn't looked after a child since he and Solana were young, and Jon had never really had interactions with turians before. As Jon walked around the ship, many of the crew had stopped to ask how he was doing. Most of the time he would answer with wide, innocent eyes. Then, the crew would remark on how pleasant or polite he was, and continue on their way, giving a significant look to Garrus. It had been an odd sensation for Garrus, to learn more about someone through the eyes of others. So far, all he could tell was that Jon was a very polite and quiet young man, with a hidden maturity and intelligence. What he could tell immediately by looking at him was that he was frail. It could have been because of the interaction with the artifact, but Garrus thought that he was incredibly weak physically. Granted, again, this was his first experience with human children.

That day had a very short walk in store for the two of them. Jon and Garrus walked around the crew deck, and by the time they got back, Jon was dead tired. Yet he never gave any sign or signal that he wanted to be carried. He was a stubborn little thing. When Garrus got him back to the med bay, he helped Jon climb into bed. Jon smiled gratefully at him, and then promptly went to sleep.

They would continue that habit for several days... Garrus would always come to the med bay at the same time, no matter what he was doing at the time. He was actually enjoying helping with the little human's rehabilitation, and Jon seemed to like it too. Besides, it hadn't been the first time; Garrus had been at Jane's side the entire way through her rehabilitation, and Garrus didn't truly mind helping at all. He was always better at supporting then being supported anyway.

Solana and Rolten had kept close by for some unknown reason. Garrus had a distinct suspicion that Solana had something to do with it though. She always did have a talent of keeping people wrapped around her fingers. It was good for Garrus. While Jane disapproved of Solana's behaviour, she constantly stated that she appreciated her help. It was when she had said it repeatedly that Garrus finally called her out on it.

"Jane, you've said that. Twice." Garrus called out from underneath the guns.

Garrus was underneath one of the main guns with a repair tool and a mask on, soldering two of the pieces back together. Jane was in one of her favourite places; she was perched on a box, watching Garrus work. While normally she just came in, stayed quiet, and they both worked, she seemed extra chatty today. Garrus spotted her feet kicking in the air and couldn't help but smirk a little. She was short enough that she needed to jump up on the box, so her legs normally swung around while she was sitting there. It was endearing, in a way.

"I know... I know... I just want you to know that I do truly appreciate her." Jane commented. There was the sound of a datapad tapping and Garrus turned off the tool. He slid himself out from underneath the gun and sat up, shifting the mask to the top of his head.

"Noted." Garrus examined her for a moment. She looked to him like she wanted to say something else. She was fidgeting too much. "Is that it?"

"... No." Jane looked up from the datapad. Her platinum eyes stared at Garrus, unblinking. "I feel like I judged her too quickly... I'd like to be able to get to know her, but there's so little time before they pull out for the Far Rim."

"There will be plenty of chances." Garrus replied dismissively. He chuckled a little. "Besides. Just because she's my sister, that doesn't mean you have to automatically like her. She can be a tricky little pyjak at times, and I wonder sometimes if she has any sense of morality... definitely not like Dad, that one."

"Is she like..." Jane was about to finish the sentence, and then she drifted off. Garrus raised an eyeridge.

"Like who?"

"Well... I don't know..." She shifted quietly. "You've... never told me what your mother was like, Garrus."

Garrus paused for a moment. Mixed feelings started to well up. The loss of his mother was still pretty fresh, and it did hurt. But yet, amongst that sting, he felt a sense of warmth, as if this was the right time to have this conversation, and this was the right person to have this conversation with. He smiled a little and looked off to the side.

"She was... a very no-nonsense kind of woman." Garrus commented. "But yet, she wasn't anything like Dad. She expected her kids to behave properly, not because it was expected of them or to cohere to any mold, but because she felt it was nothing but polite. She also didn't really like talking with anyone but her immediate family. She was always reading, and barely spoke unless she had to... but Spirits could she carry on an argument if she wanted to." Garrus chuckled. "Sol and I always wondered what brought a very disciplined turian like Dad and a scholar like Mom together, but they just... seemed to work somehow."

"Which one of you two do you think is more like your mother?"

Garrus thought about it for a long moment. "Honestly... I don't think either of us were really like our parents. Sol and I always kind of... wanted to do things on our own. Mom was the one who let us- she always said that we needed to learn from our own mistakes, or we never would learn at all. Dad was always the one who tried to tell us what was expected of us." Garrus smiled and shrugged. "But... that was a very long time ago. Before I joined the military... which is coming up on almost thirty years ago." Garrus rubbed his forehead. "I never thought I'd live to say that."

"Hey. I never thought I'd live to say that I was thirty-three." Jane commented wryly.

"You barely lived to say that you were thirty." Garrus jabbed back.

"I didn't live to say I was thirty. I was meat and bones in a coma." Garrus didn't want to wrap his mind around that. He shuddered visibly. Jane seemed to pick up on that, and she hopped off her boxes. She kneeled down beside Garrus and her fingers caressed the side of his face. Garrus' mandible twitched and he looked over at her.

"You're not allowed to die again."

"I only died once." Jane commented. "It's not like I make a habit of it."

"That doesn't stop you from trying though, does it?" Garrus replied wryly.

"Oh be quiet." Jane huffed. Garrus chuckled and he gently took her hand in his. He placed his mouth on her palm and watched her blush a little. Another human trick that he picked up. Then, he actually thought for a little bit.

"Y'know... that night was horrible."

"Mmm?" Jane hummed.

"Well... the night the Normandy was destroyed. I was pushed into an escape pod with Tali and Wrex. We saw the Normandy explode, and an escape pod fly out from the blast, and we thought it was you and Joker. Tali was even cheering..."

He saw Jane lower her eyes, but he continued on anyway. "Then we got rescued by an Alliance ship... Liara was the first one to your pod... and I'll admit that I wasn't that far behind her. But we opened it up, and there was only Joker... he was curled up on the floor and shaking. I think it's the only time I've seen that guy cry. He told us what happened, how he saw your body descending and I..." He stared up at the wall.

He was recalling when Chakwas told him that he had been talking in his sleep, the day he took the missile on Omega. He honestly wondered by now why he was saying things in his sleep to make Chakwas wonder if they were romantically involved... but then he remembered.

He had been dreaming that day.

He had been dreaming about the escape pod. About Joker's tear-stained face. About his story. About how he himself had become weak at the knees. About how he felt, for some inexplicable reason, like he had lost one of the most important things in his life. He had honestly thought of Jane as a teacher-figure for so long, but that day he had felt the same as when he lost his mother... like the galaxy had deprived him of a light, and suddenly that light was gone. He thought it was mourning for a friend and a teacher... perhaps even an older sister. But really, he had felt so deprived in his heart, so malcontent, that he had spent the next two years trying to make a difference, because Jane couldn't be there to do so. Then, when Jane had come back into his life in the form of a mercenary team, he felt complete again... but at that time, he thought it was just the fact that he had seen a friend after all of the friends around him had either betrayed him or been killed.

What if it had been something more?

Well... he would never know, and it didn't really matter now. He was brought out of his thoughts by Jane guiding his face towards her own and resting her forehead tenderly against his. He wasn't used to the woman being over him rather than under him, but it was nice. It felt really nice. He closed his eyes and hummed with content.

"I can't promise you that I won't do something reckless for the team again... I never will be able to promise that." Jane stated. She smiled quietly. "But I'll promise you this... as long as you are able to keep up with me, you are more than welcome to come along to make sure I don't get killed again."

Garrus sighed and opened his eyes. Jane had wrapped her arms around his large body as protectively as she could... which wasn't all that convincing, considering her small body. But, he got the gist. He brought their foreheads apart and looked up at her.

"Not exactly the response I was looking for, Jane."

"The best I can give you, big guy." Jane giggled a little.

"Fair enough." Garrus grasped her waist and brought her down to his level. They leaned against the gun for a little while, staring at the wall, before Jane spoke again.

"So. How's Jon doing?"

"Getting a lot stronger." Garrus replied. "He's actually put on some weight, which Chakwas tells me is good. Kenneth's fitting him with an omni-tool as soon as he can get it done for him-"

"Kenneth?"

"Oh. Donelly."

"I didn't know you were on first name terms with him."

Garrus shrugged. "I'm on first name terms with almost everyone. They've always called me by my name, I don't see why it should be any different for them." He looked down at Jane, who had an odd look on her face. "What?"

"Everyone's always just called me Shepard, for some reason. Even Liara called me Shepard."

"... really?" Garrus blinked. "Well, it's probably because you're the captain... I'm just some gun nut turian that you happened to pick up."

"Some gun nut turian that I've always brought on every mission and has been with me for almost every important event for the last four years of my life." Jane replied dryly.

"I always just assumed you put me on each mission because I was the best damn shot you had."

Jane stared at him. "Hey! I'm not something to sneeze at!"

Garrus looked up at the ceiling with a fake dreamy haze. "That's still my favourite spot on the Citadel."

"I missed on purpose!"

"Keep telling yourself that, love."

"Dammit Vakarian, don't make me wipe that smug look off your face! I'll rip out your damn mandibles!"

"But I thought you liked how I moved them during fore- Plmmph!"

He didn't finish that sentence before he was met by his nearby cot pillow in his face, a nastily strong arm powering the charge. He deserved that one too. He pulled the pillow away from his face to see Jane's toothy, mischievous grin. He adjusted his now askew visor, and Jane broke out into a quiet fit of laughter.

"Laugh it up." Garrus tried to say sternly, but he couldn't help but laugh himself. It was too infectious. He sat there, staring at her for a little while, and watched her as her smile started to fade. The pondering frown that she always had when she was thinking etched onto her face, and Garrus rested his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey... credits for your thoughts?" Garrus asked.

"I... was just thinking. You told me about the escape pod... and it got me thinking."

"Oh?"

"Well... yeah... about..." She took a deep breath. "About the Crucible."

Garrus froze up. He didn't know what to say. Although he wanted to know the full story, his brain was telling him that he shouldn't ask... but she brought it up. "Jane... if you don't want to talk about it, I'm fine-"

"No... I..." She tried to smile, but Garrus could see that she was badly shaken. "I... won't say everything... not yet... but I thought about you that day."

Garrus stayed silent, while Jane collected herself. He didn't want to hear about this... Jane had her insecurities, and Garrus knew it for quite a long time... but the day the war ended, a little bit of Jane died. He wanted her to be as comfortable as possible... he even thought that this mission would've been good for her, had it all gone to plan. A nice, soft reinstatement into the military. That went horribly wrong.

"I... was sure I was going to die... I remember shooting at the Crucible to fire the destroy mechanism... and I couldn't help but think that I didn't want to see you at that bar, waiting for me, that I'd rather wait for you and watch over you." She lowered her head. "I still didn't know if you'd survive, after that Mako blew up-"

"Jane." Garrus rested his forehead on hers once again, and she grew quiet. He looked into her eyes this time. "Listen to me. It's... okay. You can tell me when you're ready."

"_Captain, that turian bastard wants to talk to you._" Joker's voice sounded through the speakers. There could only be one 'turian bastard' that Joker could be referring to... Captain Rolten. But Garrus was glad for the interruption. It meant that Jane would have some more work to focus on. Jane looked up at the ceiling, although it was highly likely that his voice wasn't coming from there. She seemed to have a bit of her composure back, and managed to put a small smile on her lips.

"Can I tell him to get in line?"

"_Nope._" Joker replied dryly.

"Damn." Jane looked back down and caressed Garrus' cheek once. Then she wriggled out of Garrus' grip around her waist and stood up, holding a hand out to him. Garrus raised an eyeridge, registering the size difference, and then took the hand, barely using it for support as he got to his feet. "C'mon. We'd better go see what Captain Hardass wants."

Garrus' brow wrinkled. "Jane, he's just a predictable turian."

"Thank God not all of them are like that, or I might be more inclined to dislike you." Jane joked wryly. She walked away, leaving a very confused Garrus to follow her. Jane had recovered so fast... or at least she looked like she did. But there was still one very clear thing; Jane had the strength to recount her story on the Citadel only once. It would be a long while before Garrus would get her to try a second time for him.

* * *

Captain Rolten and Solana were standing opposite Jane and Garrus, and it made Garrus incredibly uncomfortable. It felt like they were in peace negotiations... which was odd, because they were never in any true conflict. Also, it seemed like his own sister was on the 'other side', which was even odder for him. Joker was sitting down at the conference table between them; Joker was attending a lot more of these meetings as of late, something that Garrus found very odd. But then again, Joker had always attended these meetings, whether they wanted him to or not; everyone knew that Joker and EDI watched over the conversations on the ship and snooped. Now Joker just felt secure enough in his position to snoop while everyone knew about it. He had quads.

Rolten kept his hands behind his back. "Captain, at the counsel of the team on the Menae, I've decided that we will be at your disposal, should you wish to pursue a partnership with my vessel."

Garrus blinked, and Jane smiled. Garrus watched Jane fold her arms. "Why the change of heart, Rolten?"

Garrus watched Rolten's eyes flicker for an instant to Solana, and Garrus couldn't help but grin. Damn. She said something. 'Counsel of the team' his ass. More like Solana said something that the old turian simply couldn't ignore. Rolten straightened himself and cleared his throat. "It would be a shame for the heroes of the galaxy to suddenly fall to whatever force happens to be on Despoina. I don't think that it's in the best interest of the Hierarchy to have you die, Shepard. You seem to be the only one who can get off of their ass and get things done, pardon the informality." He looked to Garrus. "I also feel that endangering one of the former advisers to the Primarch isn't in our best interest either. We don't know when we will need the expertise of Vakarian again. He saved millions of lives on Palaven with his advice and actions, more then most of our advisers have ever done."

Garrus stared at the old captain for a moment, his thoughts spinning around an empty void. He had never truly thought of his job as the... what even was he... top Reaper authority? He never thought of it as a valuable position after the war. Maybe it was because he felt like it wasn't the place for him.. it was a position he took as a necessity. He also hadn't paid attention at the time to the lives that he saved... he had seen only the death statistics. He bowed his head bashfully.

"No... I... I only did what had to be done, Captain."

"Which goes back to my former point. You get things done. The both of you, and the rest of your crew." Rolten looked them over. Garrus thought that he seemed genuine in his words... Rolten just seemed like a very genuine and down-to-planet kind of turian. One who didn't say useless things. Rolten folded his arms and continued. "And frankly, if we are dealing with a race that was wiped out by the Reapers, as Vakarian's theory so follows, there's a good chance that the race had the same technology as the Reapers, or something very similar. They might know something about the mass relays, and how to reactivate them."

Garrus and Jane shot looks at each other. He knew that Jane was only thinking of how to stop the indoctrination effects, and about how far-spread the indoctrination went. They both hadn't even thought of utilizing some kind of technology from whatever was controlling them.

Joker inputted at this point, studying Rolten. "The activation isn't the problem. It will take time to repair all of the mass relays, and it activates the same as it always did. Velocity is the problem. After reaching FTL speed, it becomes very hard to control. It runs at a speed that only an AI could process and actually survive through. It becomes near teleportation speed. We fleshy organics can't take that kind of pressure." He glanced at everyone at the table. "We have two options; we put the speed down to organic levels, or we find something to deal with the speed. Frankly, the former's probably more likely to happen in our lifetime."

Rolten seemed surprised by this interruption, and pointed at Joker. "This is...?"

"Our top pilot on the ship."

"More like our top pilot in the Alliance. Name's Jeff Moreau. You've probably heard of me."

Rolten frowned, and shook his head.

"Wait." Joker paused. "You've never heard of Jeff 'Joker' Moreau? I'm a living legend in the Alliance, and there has been no other pilot of the Normandy. You seriously have never heard of me?"

"Excuse his arrogance, Captain." Garrus quickly inputted. He looked at Joker. "Joker, we'll discuss your claim to fame later. But no matter how much he wants to sing his praises, he is probably the best authority we have on the current state of the mass relays. You'd be able to gain valuable information from him, our engineers and our black box. If we find anything on value on Despoina, we could certainly use the help of the Engineering Corps to get us home. It would be of value for you as well. When you're done your mission on the Far Rim, you'll need a route home. If we can manage to tweak the settings-"

"Your sister and you are of the same mind, Vakarian." Rolten interrupted with a raised hand. "She has already brought these things to my attention, and I agree. We'll help you and your ship. I will personally be leaving Solana here on the Normandy, both as my representative and as an additional assistance for you. Solana's word will be my word." Rolten glanced at Solana, who was quietly smiling. Garrus smiled back at her, and then looked at Jane. Jane beckoned him with one hand, and Garrus turned his head back to the other two.

"We'll give her full access to our systems, the same as any crew member." Garrus nodded at Solana. "Sol, they could probably use your help down in Engineering between missions. I think you'll enjoy yourself more there then anywhere else on the ship."

"Probably." Solana chirped. "I'll grab my things." Solana then looked at her brother and grinned. "Who knows... maybe I can even help with the Normandy's guns."

"No." Garrus replied flatly. No way was his little sister messing with his calibrations.

* * *

**CHAPTER NOTES**

Sorry for the delay. I like to keep a chapter ahead. So although this chapter has been written since my last chapter was released, Citadel DLC consumed me, and made me wish I had taken this fic in a different direction. But no matter; I've come back now.

I just have some notes to say about the Citadel DLC.

Wrex was amazing. If it had only been good because of Wrex, I would've considered it a good purchase.

However, the romance scenes were amazing as well. Traynor and Garrus. 3 And James and Ashley hooking up for the night made my night.

Also, drunken Garrus is best Garrus. But he's not allowed to set up explosives in my apartment, no matter how cute he makes the disarming password, thank you very much.

Also, Javik the Trollthean.

Also, Mordin broke the first rule of Omega.

... I'll stop before I try to give away important spoilers.


End file.
